By Modupe Gbadeyanka
One of the main cement makers in Nigeria, BUA Cement Plc, has been included in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index, operated by a leading provider of research-based indexes and analytics, MSCI Incorporated.
In its February 2020 Quarterly Index review for the MSCI Equity Indexes, the agency said the addition will become effective February 28, 2020.
BUA Cement was the only change made to the index.
“The following are changes in constituents for the MSCI Frontier Markets Indexes which will take place as of the close of February 28, 2020,” the notice from MSCI stated.
Last month, BUA Cement listed 33.864 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) at N35 per share.
The listing followed the merger between OBU Cement and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN), an entity earlier on the exchange.
After the ‘marriage’, CCNN was delisted from the NSE and BUA Cement introduced, making it the third most capitalised company on the exchange when it was listed in January 2020, behind one of its main competitors, Dangote Cement.
Its addition to the MSCI Frontier Markets Index is expected to improve its profile in the investment community.
The MSCI Frontier Markets Index captures large and mid-cap representation across 28 Frontier Markets (FM) countries including Nigeria.
The index has 92 constituents and compiles the market capitalisation of all companies that are listed in these countries’ stock markets. It is considered a good measurement of the stock performance of emerging markets and represents 13 percent of the world’s total market capitalisation.
Adedapo Adesanya