Abdulsamad Rabiu to earn $169 million dividend from BUA Cement

Billionaire mogul Abdulsamad Rabiu is set to earn a dividend of N64.58 billion ($169.4 million) from his 98.5-percent stake in his cement business BUA Cement Plc.

This follows a N2.067 ($0.0054) per share dividend declaration by the company’s board of directors on a proposed N70-billion dividend for 2020.

According to Nairametrics, Rabiu is the single majority shareholder in his cement business, with a direct stake of 19,044,995,225 ordinary shares, representing 56.24-percent ownership and an indirect stake of about 12.2 billion shares. He holds his indirect shares through Damnaz Cement Company Limited, BUA International Limited and BUA Cement Company Limited.

This puts the totality of shares at approximately 31,244,995,225. Meanwhile, the total shares outstanding in BUA Cement on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as of April 2021 was 33,864,354,060.

By way of calculation,

31,244,995,225 shares x N2.067 ( ($0.0054)

= N 64,583,405,130.075 ($169.4 million).

In January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement with listed firm Cement Co., which he controlled, to form BUA Cement Plc.

The company now lists on the NSE, with Rabiu holding a 98.5-percent stake. This makes him the single majority shareholder in BUA Cement.

The company said its profits grew by 19.4 percent year-on-year to N72.34 billion ($189.74 million) for 2020, compared to its 2019 figure of N60.34 billion ($158.3 million).

The billionaire philanthropist is the chairman BUA Group, a Nigeria-based conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture.

Rabiu is worth $4.8 billion as of April, according to Forbes.