Dangote Cement drops plan for London Stock Exchange listing
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Business Day (South Africa) and Business Day Nigeria
Dangote Cement has abandoned its planned secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, citing unstable market conditions following the US midterm elections, according to Business Day. The company says its shares will remain listed on the Nigerian Exchange and that the decision does not affect its operations or business plans.
The cement maker and its parent company Dangote Industries have abandoned the planned listing, with no new timetable. In a regulatory notice signed by company secretary Edward Imoedemhe and filed on Tuesday 10 November with the Nigerian Exchange, the board says the transaction will not go ahead “at this stage”, given current market conditions and its strategic priorities.
The project was intended to broaden the base of international investors and was to be accompanied by a sale of shares by existing shareholders, with a potential value of about 1 billion dollars. An investor presentation had been held in London on 21 September, with Goldman Sachs and UBS as joint bookrunners. The decision comes two weeks after the close of the initial public offering of the Dangote refinery, another subsidiary of the group, which attracted investors from 54 countries and raised more than its target of 2.15 trillion naira.
