SEC Approves Renewal of Dangote Cement's Share Buy-Back Programme

Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the renewal of the Dangote Cement Share Buyback Programme effective until the 21st of January, 2022.

As seen in a disclosure signed by the deputy secretary of Dangote Group, Edward Imoedemhe, the share buy-back programme will be executed under the approval granted by the company’s shareholders at the recently concluded Annual General Meeting of the company.

In line with the recent development, the notice stated that the share buyback will be undertaken through an open market offer or self-tender, at a period and term determined by the company, subject to prevailing market conditions.

The Dangote Cement Share Buyback Programme

In accordance with a resolution of the company on the 22nd of January 2020, Dangote Cement Plc (DCP) announced a Share Buyback Programme that will see the firm buy back up to 10 percent of its issued 10.04billion ordinary shares. The firm announced that the shares bought back will be held as Treasury Shares and subsequently cancelled.

To effectively execute this, the firm announced that the programme will be implemented in tranches. The first tranche which commenced on the 30th of December and ended on the 31st of December 2020, saw the company re-purchase about 40,200,000 ordinary shares (representing about 0.24% of the total issued and fully paid ordinary shares of the company) at an average share price of N243.02, totalling N9.77billion.

However, with the rising tide of the COVID-19 pandemic and its debilitating impact on the economy, it became apparently difficult to continue the effective implementation of the programme as planned.

Efforts to salvage the situation paid off on the 26th of May 2021, when shareholders passed a special resolution renewing the Share Buyback Programme. The decision to renew the programme was premised on renewed optimism in the improvement in economic conditions.

In line with this development, the firm noted that it will continue to monitor the evolving business environment and market conditions, in making decisions on tranches of the share buyback programme.