Greif Nigeria Seeks Shareholders’ Consent to Delist from NSE

Greif Nigeria Plc, which manufactures and markets steel drums and plastic containers, has opted to delist from the Nigerian Stock Exchange(NSE). In a notification to the NSE, the company said the decision to exit the exchange was reached at board meeting held on December 12, 2019.

According to the company, the board resolved to conveneg an extraordinary general meeting of the company for Thursday, 23rd January, 2020 to get the approval of the shareholders to sell its land and buildingsin Apapa, Lagos and delist the shares from the NSE.

The company had early in the year said it was suspending its operations for now in the country. According to the Chairman of the company, Mr Adedayo Olowoniyi the company worked assiduously to prevail through the challenging business environment, but still had issues in cost-recovery through several price increases in the market, despite adopting cost reduction measures and driving efficient methods.

“The trends that have started mid 2018 still continues in the first (fiscal) quarter of 2019. As a result of increased competition and a stagnant market for steel drums, we do not see an improvement happening in the near future. Greif Nigeria has been operating well below operating costs, even below direct material costs, and sees no signs of improved market conditions. Therefore, we have decided to stop operations with immediate effect. The coming months we will investigate on if and/or how we can continue with Greif Nigeria,” he said.

Meanwhile, the stock market posted a marginal gain yesterday as the NSE All-Share Index rose 0.02 per cent to close at 26,665.73, while market capitalisation added N2.6 billion to be at N12.9 trillion. As a result, the year-to-date growth settled at 15.2 per cent.

The level of activity level declined as volume and value traded fell 29.9 per cent and 33.4 per cent to 232.7 million shares and N3.2 billion respectively. The banking stocks maintained dominance with Access Bank Plc (64.2 million shares), Zenith Bank Plc (31.0 million shares) and GTBank Plc (26.6 million shares) led the volume chart while GTBank(N786 million), Access Bank Plc (N636 million) and Zenith Bank (N577.4 million) led the value chart.

In terms of price movement, Ikeja Hotel Plc led the price gainers with 9.8 per cent trailed by Chams Plc with 9.0 per cent. Cadbury Nigeria Plc appreciated by 7.5 per cent, while Royal Exchange Plc and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc chalked up 7.4 per cent and 4.6 per cent in that order.