Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Shares of BUA Cement recorded the first loss after joining the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, January 9, 2020.
At the listing, the stock exchange admitted a total of 33,864,354,060 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each of BUA Cement Plc at a unit price of N35, boosting the market capitalisation of the NSE by N1.2 trillion to N15.164 trillion from N13.787 trillion before the admission.
This also made the firm become the third largest company on the local bourse, behind Dangote Cement in first position and MTN Nigeria in second place.
On its first day on the NSE, share price of BUA Cement rose to N38.45 and further appreciated to N41 per unit on Friday before depreciating by N2 or 4.88 percent to N39 per share on Monday.
Business Post reports that BUA Cement joined the NSE by acquiring an existing company on the exchange, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) Plc.
The journey recently started when CCNN formed a business partnership with Kalambaina Cement, a subsidiary of BUA Group and owner of the latter, Mr Abdulsamad Rabiu, became chairman of the former.
After the merger was finalised, CCNN later informed the exchange that it was joining with OBU Cement to expand its operations and production capacity. This deal was completed last year and CCNN was delisted from the NSE and BUA Cement introduced.
Managing Director of BUA Cement Plc, Mr Yusuf Binji, has assured shareholders of the company that they would get greater value for their investment in the firm because there would be increased capacity to service new and existing markets, increased operational efficiencies, economies of scale, increased profitability and creation of a platform for further investment that will have a positive impact on host communities.
One of the main targets of BUA Cement is to displace Dangote Cement as the biggest cement producer and seller in the country. Dangote Cement presently controls over 60 percent of the market share, leaving Lafarge Africa, BUA Cement and others to struggle with the remaining 40 percent.
