Lafarge Africa Plc, the continent’s second-biggest cement producer, plans to raise as much as N90bn through a share sale in Nigeria that will be used to lower its debt levels.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Bruno Bayet, revealed that the sale would take place by the fourth quarter, after the company reported a loss.
“Profit is affected by leverage, so it needs to be brought down,” he was quoted as saying.
The company’s total debt dropped to about $600m in 2017 from more than $1bn.
It expects its leverage ratio, which measures the level of debt incurred against its assets, to drop to between 60 per cent and 70 per cent “over the next 18 months,” from more than 100 per cent, the Chairman, Lafarge Africa, Mobolaji Balogun, said in May.
Lafarge Africa’s loss for the six months through June 30 2018, narrowed to N3.9bn from N19.7bn in the previous year. Revenue increased by four per cent to N162.3bn.