Dangote Cement will buy back 85.2 million shares on the Lagos bourse to return cash to shareholders and aims to repurchase 10% of its entire share capital in tranches. Dangote Cement aims to buy back up to 10% of its 17.04 billion issued shares and subsequently cancel those shares, it said in a regulatory filing. Dangote Cement, majority-owned by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, said in March it planned to commence a share buyback programme this year once it had obtained regulatory approval. It had considered an open tender for the buyback.
Dangote Cement shares were up 9.98% to 230.40 naira, valuing the firm at 3.93 trillion naira ($10.3 billion). The shares, which hit bottom in April, rose to an almost two-year high on news of the share buyback. The gains helped lift the share index 1.82% to a 2-1/2 year high.