By Dipo Olowookere
The board of Lafarge Africa Plc will hold a crucial meeting today to discuss the company’s investment in neighbouring Ghana, which is not palatable.
A statement issued by its General Counsel/Company Secretary, Adewunmi Alode, disclosed that the emergency meeting will specifically look into the organisation’s investment in Continental Blue Investment Limited.
Business Post reports that the cement giant based in Nigeria controls a considerable stake, 35 per cent, in Continental Blue Investment.
Continental Blue Investment is involved in the business of manufacturing and processing of non-precious minerals and building material in Ghana and the interest in the JV is accounted for using the equity method.
”This is to notify the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that an emergency meeting of the board of directors of Lafarge Africa Plc will hold on Tuesday, October 6, 2020, to discuss the company’s investment in Continental Blue Investment Limited,” the notice from the firm said.
According to the audited financial statements of Lafarge Africa for the 2019 fiscal year, Continental Blue Investment presently operates a cement grinding plant in Ghana.
It was stated that the group and company’s interest in CBI is accounted for using the equity method in the consolidated and separate financial statements.
But the operations of the company is not contributing positively to the numbers of the group like its recently offloaded South African business, Lafarge South Africa Holdings (Pty) Limited (LSAH).
“As at December 31, 2019, the carrying amount of the company’s investment in Continental Blue Investment (CBI) has been fully depleted, as the losses reported over the years exceeded the carrying amount of the investment,” the financial results pointed out.
Analysis of the company’s performance in 2019 showed that despite significant growth in the revenue generated (N13.3 billion versus N3.6 billion in 2018), the cumulative unrecognised share of loss of Lafarge Africa in the period under review stood at N382.3 million versus N283.3 million in the previous year.
