The Nigerian Breweries Plc is currently in the market to raise N599.1 billion through rights issues which the brewer aims to clear overdue Foreign Exchange (FX) debts. The rights issue opened for subscription on Monday, September 2, and closes on Friday, October 11 2024.
Speaking at the Facts Behind the Rights Issue held at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Tuesday, Ben Wessels Boer, finance director, Nigerian Breweries Plc said that the company was doing everything possible to cut down debt costs.
Read also: Nigerian Breweries: Largest brewer battling with FX debt
“For the local debt, we’re looking at all possible sources to make sure that we get the lowest possible loans within the market and we want to ask everybody all our shareholders to contribute and to fully subscribe, and in that way also the shares of all shareholders can remain the same,” he said.
When asked about the prospects of future profitability for the company, Hans Essaadi, managing director/chief executive officer, of Nigerian Breweries Plc stated that the company had completely future-proofed the nature of the business to prevent future FX exposure.
“We are ready and we have completely future-proofed our business so that when demand in the market comes back and despite the painful measures in this administration, mid- long-term, our efforts will bear fruit. We currently have over-capacity, which is not a nice thing to have in the short term, but for the long-term, we’re ready when the time comes,” he stated.
Nigerian Breweries Plc in its unaudited and provisional results for the half year (six months) ended June 30, 2024, reported a Loss After Tax (LAT) of N85.199billion as against LAT of N47.599billion in H1 of 2023, representing a 79 percent increase.
Though, the brewer’s group revenue grew by 72.9 percent to N479.767billion from N277.419billion in H1’2023, its net finance expense spiked by 60.5percent to N154.480billion from N96.223billion.
A total of 22,607,491,232 ordinary shares will be offered to existing shareholders at N26.50 per share based on eleven new ordinary shares for every five ordinary shares of 50 kobo held by Friday, 12 July, 2024.
Read also: Dangote Cement, International Breweries top firms with highest shareholders’ equity in H1
Jude Chiemeka, chief executive officer, Nigerian Exchange Limited, commended NBC for presenting its financial performance and seeking subscription for its rights issues.
“As a central feature of NGX strategy, the facts-behind-the-figure platform supports our mission to enhance transparency and stimulate engagement in the capital markets. We are pleased that Nigerian Breweries has chosen this platform to present its financial performance, operational updates, and strategic plans for its rights issues,” he said.
