International Breweries Gets NSE’s Nod for N164.4bn Rights Issue

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has granted the application filed by the board of International Breweries Plc for the listing of its proposed rights issue on the platform.

The breweries giant is planning to raise fresh funds of up to N164.4 billion by selling shares to its existing shareholders at a unit price of N9 per share, N1 lower than N10 it traded on the floor of the NSE on Monday (today).

The company had through its stockbroker, Chapel Hill Denham Securities Limited, filed the application to the NSE. The request for approval was admitting the rights issue on the stock exchange for trading when eventually allotted to investors.

A regulatory document sighted by Business Post on Monday showed that the application was approved by the NSE on Thursday, November 14, 2019.

International Breweries is planning to issue a total of 18,266,206,614 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each of the company at N9 per unit on the basis of 17 new ordinary share for every 8 ordinary shares held.

As at the close of business today, International Breweries has a total share outstanding of 8,595,861,936 units and a market capitalisation of N86.0 billion.

Recall that in October 2019, shareholders of the company at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in Lagos, authorised the rights issue by passing a resolution “That, subject to obtaining the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities, the directors be and are hereby authorized to raise additional capital of up to N165,000,000,000.00 by way of a rights issue of ordinary shares to the company’s shareholders (Rights Issue) and that the rights issue be executed at such price, time and on such other terms and other conditions as the directors may deem fit.”

International Breweries operates in a very tough terrain in Nigeria, with competitors like Guinness Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries giving the company some sleepless nights.

The federal government has also not helped matters especially with the introduction of a new excise regime, which has made it very difficult for players in the nation’s brewery industry to make profit since 2018 financial year, when the policy kicked off.

Last year, International Breweries officially opened its $250 million factory in Sagamu, Ogun State. The new capital needed by the board is to enable the company expand its market in the country.