Africa Rising: South Africans After Dangote: S/African Fund buys 1.5% equity in Dangote Cement for N45.8bn(US$289 million)

S/African Fund buys 1.5% equity in Dangote Cement for N45.8bn

June 11, 2013 | Filed under: Markets | Posted by: IHEANYI NWACHUKWU

The Public Investment Corporation of South Africa (PIC) has bought 1.5 percent or 255,607,605 shares of Dangote Cement plc at N45.75billion (about $289 million) – the largest trade on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday.

Public Investment Corporation whose funds under management worth 1.17 trillion Rands ( $115billion) is 100 percent owned by the South African Government. They bought the shares of Dangote Cement at a discounted price of N179 (30-day volume weighted average price).

Renaissance Capital helped to manage the sale of the shares which the Nigerian Stock Exchange also confirmed were sold to PIC by Dangote Industries Limited which owns 95 percent of the company.

Dangote Cement plc is Af

rica's biggest producer of the building material and has production capacity of 19.3 million metric tons in Nigeria, with plans to increase that to 29 million tonnes by 2015. It is owned by billionaire Aliko Dangote.

The shares of Dangote Cement plc stood at N210 at the close of trading; the stock has gained 64 percent this year, outpacing the 42 percent increase in the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index. In 159 deals the company's 256,591,249 shares worth N45.960billion were ex

changed by equity dealers.

Analysts at FBN Capital had in their report titled "The Lagos exchange leads from the front" observed that the performance of the Nigerian index reflects the strength of Dangote Cement, "the stock with the highest market capitalisation."

Last year, the Public Investment Corporation, on behalf of Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) invested $250million (about R1.7billion) in the common equity of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of Ecobank Nigeria Limited, the leading independent pan-African banking group with presence in 32 African countries.

This investment which represented PIC's first major direct investment outside of South Africa was is in line with GEPF's investment strategy that has identified Africa (excluding South Africa) as the next frontier for investment growth. The transaction ($250 million share purchase that led to issuance of 3,125,000,000 shares in Ecobank, representing 19.58 percent of the total outstanding number of shares) bolstered ETI's tier one capital and further enhanced its ability to grow its business across the African continent.