Lafarge to list N25bn Commercial Paper

Lafarge Africa Plc has concluded plans to issue N25 billion Commercial Papers first tranche from a N60 billion. programme in October. The company made this known when it released its financial results for the third quarter period ended September 2017.
The company said net proceeds of the Commercial Papers will support short-term working capital needs and will be listed on the FMDQ OTC Exchange. In addition, the already approved N131.65 billion Rights Issue will hold in November at the rate of N42.50 per share.
The result saw operating EBITDA up four-fold to N44.4b within the nine-month period. While sales increased by 39 per cent within the same period.
Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Africa , Michel Puchercos, said: “As part of our strategy to reduce foreign currency debt exposure, and improve financial flexibility, the shareholders and board of Lafarge Africa consented to the issuance of N131.65 Billion by way of Rights Issue at N42.50 per share. Five new shares will be issued for every nine shares held at the qualification date, which will be announced in the coming weeks. The Rights Issue is expected to open and close in November 2017.”
Commenting on the result Puchercos said: “Our company continues to recover since we implemented the turnaround plan in September 2016 and has delivered a good performance even in a challenging market. As of September 2017, the cement demand in Nigeria was significantly lower than prior year. Nevertheless, operating EBITDA for our Nigeria operations was up 4.0x at N41.7 billion and EBITDA margin stood at 30 per cent thanks to stable pricing environment, steady industrial operations, fuel flexibility, execution of our commercial and logistics performance improvement plan. We shipped the first batch of cement to the Ghana market, which was well accepted.”
“The South African economy exited a recession in second quarter 2017, supported by secondary and tertiary sectors. Cement revenue was up 30 per cent supported by stable pricing and the strengthening of the Rand against the Naira”. However, operations were impacted in the quarter by industrial challenges at the Lichtenburg plant.”