The listing of over 7.43 billion units of additional shares of Lafarge Africa Plc, the Lagos-listed unit of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim, has placed the cement maker as the thirteenth most capitalised firm listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Lafarge rose among companies that make up the NSE 30, the price index that tracks the top 30 companies in terms of market capitalisation and liquidity obtained by multiplying the number of a company’s listed shares, closing price and a capping factor.
The new shares, which were offered by a way of a rights issue on the basis of six ordinary shares for every seven ordinary shares held as at Dec. 4, 2018 at N12, pushed the company’s market value to N208.6 billion on Wednesday, while its total issued and fully paid up shares increased to 16.11 billion ordinary shares from 8.67 billion ordinary shares.
That came after the shares were listed on NSE’s daily official list on Tuesday, March 26, according to a notice filed at the local bourse Wednesday, and represents 85.7 percent increase from N112.32 billion.
Over N89.21 billion worth of value was added to the cement company as proceeds from a total of 1,826 valid and processed applications accepted in connection with the rights issue which enjoyed full subscription, indicating a discount to N96.28 billion the shares were worth as at the close of business on Wednesday when the stock closed unchanged at N12.95.
The rights share results released by the company revealed that 1,734 of its shareholders accepted their rights in full, totalling 5,931,501,457 ordinary shares, out of which 738,731,071 ordinary shares were traded on the floor of the NSE.
Also, 92 shareholders with a provisional allotment of 395,875,060 ordinary shares partially accepted their rights for 202,401,994 ordinary shares, bringing the amount of renounced shares to 193,473,066, while 34 subscribers purchased rights of 738,731,071 ordinary shares.
The cement maker further said of the 1,734 shareholders who took up their rights in full, 734 shareholders also applied for additional 1,300,463,805 ordinary shares and were allotted in full from the renounced rights. As a result, a total of 1,106,990,739 ordinary shares were fully renounced, bringing the total number of shares renounced to 1,300,463,805 ordinary shares.
OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN
