Court Orders Status Quo in Lafarge Africa Sale Row

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

All the parties involved in the legal row over the sale of Lafarge Africa Plc to a Chinese company, Huaxin Cement Limited, have been ordered to maintain status quo.

This directive was given by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday when the matter came up for hearing.

The transaction will have to wait pending the outcome of the case in the Court of Appeal.

At the hearing today, counsel to Lafarge Africa, Mr Babatunde Fagbohunlu (SAN), told Justice Lewis Allagoa that an appeal had already been filed against the lower court based on jurisdiction.

According to him, records of proceedings have been transmitted to the appellate court with an application for a stay of proceedings, advising the court to refrain from continuing with the substantive matter until the issue of jurisdiction is resolved.

However, counsel to the party which wants to stop the sale of 83.81 per cent stake in Lafarge Africa to the Chinese firm, Strategic Consultancy, Mr D.A. Awosika (SAN), argued that his client had not been served with any notice of appeal, maintaining that the appeal filed by the cement firm relates only to the mode of commencement of the suit and does not impact the core issues of the substantive case.

He noted that if the stay of proceedings is granted, the other parties should also be stopped from taking any steps to prejudice the matter.

Justice Allagoa, which adjourned the case to October 9, 2025, ordered that status quo should be maintained by all parties.

Strategic Consultancy, which is a minority shareholder in Lafarge Africa, is against the sale of the majority stake to Huaxin Cement by a Swiss multinational and Lafarge’s parent company, Holcim Group.

The Nigerian company argued that the transaction violates Nigerian corporate and investment laws, including the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission Act, and the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Act.

The Nigerian Senate also recently blocked the sale of the cement firm to the Chinese company.