Jobs At Risk As PZ Seeks Approval To Sell Nutricima Limited To Rival

 

Jobs are at risk in Nutricima Limited as PZ Cussons Nigeria is planning to sell the Nigerian subsidiary to its market rival and Dutch company, Friesland Campina Nederland B.V. The sale of Nutricima Limited is part of PZ Cussons' strategy to scale up its growth in the personal and household products markets, and solely focus on its core business, but it could affect jobs at Nutricima.

PZ Cussons had stated that the "assets sale is in line with the group's focus, scale and accelerate strategy in order to streamline the group's focus on core personal care and beauty brands." AllNews learnt. Nutricima Limited produces milk and yoghurt drinks; NuNu, Yo, and Olympic.

Sale Won't Go Ahead Without Shareholders, Regulatory Nods

The management of PZ Cussons Nigeria will have to get approval from its shareholders before such sale can go on. In a statement from PZ Cussons, obtained by AllNews, it was gathered that the company has called for an extraordinary general meeting to obtain approval from its shareholders to enable the company sell Nutricima Limited to Friesland Campina Nederland B.V. The asset will be handed over to Friesland Campina Wamco Nigeria Plc.

The parent company, PZ Cussons International Limited had previously disclosed the impending sale of Nutricima Limited to the London Stock Exchange before the investing public in Nigeria were informed. The sale will be put up for a vote at the extraordinary general meeting on July 28, 2020. The shareholders are expected to vote in favour of the sale.

Aside from Shareholders approval, the company also needs to receive approval from the regulatory body in order to finalise the deal with Friesland Campina. Both the shareholders' and regulatory approvals are needed if PZ Cussons is to enter its next phase of focusing on its core business, which is personal and household products. PZ Cussons products includes Carex, Original Source and Morning Fresh.

Meanwhile, the impending sale of Nutricima Limited is not the first assets PZ Cussons will sell to competitors in recent times, as the company had also sold its Polish personal care brand, Luksja, to Sarantis Group, a personal care company based in Athens.

Are Jobs At Risk At Nutricima?

Acquisition of businesses usually leads to fear of job loss by the employees of the acquired company. This is because the investor usually has their own plan for the acquired company that might be different from the initial owner of the acquired company. One thing which is certain is that there will be reshuffling of the management in Nutricima.

This is because the investors' of Friesland Campina will be coming in with their own team which will be expected to oversee Nutricima Limited once the sale has been finalised. Even in a merger or consolidation, management teams are often changed or reshuffled, so an outright buy - which is what Friesland Campina is planning to do - will see a total takeover.

While changes are expected at the top level of Nutricima's management, it is, however, not sure how many junior employees will be affected. Nutricima Limited has about 1000 employees.

Note: PZ Cussons stocks has been in demand since the market opened this week. After its stock price fell from N4 per share on July 2, 2020, to N3.90 kobo per share on July 3, 2020, the stock price has been on the rise since July 6, moving up from the N3.90 kobo per share it opened the market with this week to now trade at N4.20 kobo per share. That's the current trading price as at the time of filing this report.