From January 2nd to October 29th, four out of seven manufacturers experienced appreciations in share prices despite a challenging business environment, BusinessDay analysis shows.
Dangote Cement recorded 23.1 percent year-to-date growth, Unilever Nigeria(21.6 percent), Livestock Feed plc(19.6 percent), and Champion Breweries(8.1 percent).
However, BUA Cement, Nigerian Breweries and Cadbury Nigeria recorded recorded declines of 8.7 percent, 17.6 percent and 24.3 percent respectively.
“When investors’ interests are strategic, then a company’s share price will move,” Tajudeen Ibrahim, director of research at Chapel Hill Denham Securities, said.
“Femi Otedola is a strategic investor in Dangote Cement, which implies that most likely the share price will improve even with the firm’s short term challenges.”
Femi Otedola, Nigeria’s billionaire investor, previously announced a significant acquisition of shares in Dangote Cement. This strategic investment underscores Otedola’s confidence in Dangote Cement’s potential to generate foreign exchange for the country.
“Dangote Cement’s recently released result shows weaknesses which can be linked to seasonal challenges while Unilever Nigeria had an improvement in its performance,” Ibrahim said.
He stated that a stock can appreciate as a result of corporate performance(earnings reported), corporate action (dividend announcement; share bonus), investors looking to be overweight, announcement of expansion plans and announcement around mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities.
Dangote Cement plc ‘s share price stood at N431 as of October 29, BUA Cement share price stood at N93, Nigerian Breweries (N28.5), Unilever Nigeria (N22.2), Livestock Feed plc (N19.25), Cadbury Nigeria (N18.2) and Champion Breweries (N3.74).
“The trajectory of Champion Breweries shows negative growth and investors have sentiments between stocks of Nigerian Breweries and Champion Breweries,” said Afamuefuna Chukwurah, research analyst at Capital Bancorp Plc
“FX volatility has affected Nigerian Breweries and CHampion Breweries. Some investors want to benefit from low value stocks like champion to gain from the brewery sub sector,” Chukwurah said.
He stated that Dangote Cement has been a good stock because it has its potential in the market as regards returns and the investor championing it is Femi Otedola who wants a stake and the market has not responded positively to it.
Read also: Manufacturers raise investments by 32% on rising confidence
Share price performance
Dangote Cement Plc’s share price was at N431 per share as at October 29 from N350 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with N7.22 trillion market capitalisation has 16,752,154,537 units of outstanding shares.
BUA Cement share price was at N93 per share as at October 29 from N101.9 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with a 3.35 trillion market capitalisation has 33,864,354,864 units of outstanding shares.
Nigerian Breweries share price was at N28.5 per share as at October 28 from N34.57 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with 287.7 billion market capitalisation has 10,276,132,378 units of outstanding shares.
Unilever’s share price was at N22.2 per share as at October 29 from N18.25 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with a 127.5 billion market capitalisation has 5,745,005,417 units of outstanding shares.
Livestock Feed plc’s share price was at N19.25 per share as at October 28 from N16.1 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with 1.79 trillion market capitalisation has 92,806,000 units of outstanding shares. Cadbury Nigeria’s share price was at N18.20 per share as at October 29 from N24.05 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with 39.9 billion market capitalisation has 2,280,284,619 units of outstanding shares.
Champion Breweries Plc’s share price was at N3.74 per share as at October 29 from N3.46 per share at the beginning of the year.
The company with 31.32 billion market capitalisation has 8,947,995,959 units of outstanding shares.
Financial performance
Dangote Cement plc’s after-tax profit rose to N279.1 billion in the nine months of 2024, from N277.5 billion in the similar period of 2023. Revenue surged to N2.56 trillion from N1.51 trillion.
BUA Cement plc’s after-tax profit grew to N48.97 billion in the nine months of 2024, from N76.1 billion in the same period of 2023. The firm’s revenue increased to N583.4 billion from N335.9 billion.
Nigerian Breweries recorded an after-tax loss of N149.5 billion, from N57.2 billion. Revenue grew to N710.9 billion from N401.8 billion.
Unilever Nigeria’s after-tax profit surged to N11 billion, from N1.67 billion. The firm’s revenue increased to N103.8 billion from N71.2 billion.
Livestock Feed plc recorded an after-tax profit of N1.42 billion from N39.3 million. Its revenue from contracts with customers increased to N28.6 billion from N14.3 billion.
Cadbury Nigeria’s loss for the period amounted to N11.9 billion from N10.24 billion. The firm’s revenue grew to N89.5 billion from N59.2 billion.
Champion Breweries recorded an after-tax profit of N21.5 million in nine months of 2024 from an after-tax loss of N77.7 million in the same period of 2023. Revenue grew to N14.02 billion from N8.36 billion.
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