The shares of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc hit a seven-day high on Friday on the back of a share buyback which was approved by shareholders at a court-ordered meeting of the company.
Flour Mills shares closed the past week trading at N78.65 per unit indicating a 10 per cent gain over the previous day’s trading. In the past seven trading sessions, the shares had traded at N64, rising to N65, then N71.5 before hitting N78.65 on Friday.
The company’s market capitalisation stood at N322.49bn as of Friday.
In September 2024, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc announced that its majority shareholder, Excelsior Shipping Company Limited, is seeking to buy out the remaining shares held by minority shareholders. Excelsior offered to pay N70 per share to minority shareholders. This represents a 56.3 per cent premium on the last traded price and a 63.6 per cent premium on the 90-day volume-weighted average price.
However, after the EGM held on Thursday, holders of FMN’s shares will receive N86 per share in the buyback transaction.
The majority shareholder holds 2.59 billion shares or 63 per cent stake, worth N142.8bn as of September 24
After the transaction, the legal and beneficial ownership of the scheme shares will be Excelsior Shipping Company Limited and its wholly-owned Nigerian subsidiary, Greywise Investment Solutions Limited.
In the notice of the shareholders’ resolution filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the shares will be delisted from the local bourse.
Meanwhile, FMN’s half-year financial results showed that the FMN Plc revenue grew by 60 per cent(year-on-year) with gross profit growth of 67 per cent.
It returned to profit at the end of half year at N14.42bn from a loss of N8.52bn in the same period as of 2023.
According to the results, the company said that the “management remains optimistic that with the current government monetary policies at stabilising the foreign exchange market, and management continued effort in sales and marketing activities (geared towards boosting our top line while keeping cost under control), it is expected that there will be an improvement in our operations in the coming period.”
