Nigerian billionaire Abdul Samad Rabiu loses $69 million from stake in BUA Foods

Nigerian billionaire businessman Abdul Samad Rabiu has recorded a decline of $69.3 million in the valuation of his stake in BUA Foods, as investors displayed bearish worries in the food business for the first time since its shares were listed 15 days ago.

BUA Foods, the Nigeria-based BUA Group’s unified food business segment, includes the activities of BUA Sugar Refinery Limited, BUA Oil Mills Limited, IRS Flour, IRS Pasta and BUA Rice Limited.

Rabiu owns 99.8 percent of the newly established food business segment, and his position in the firm has added $2.7 billion to his wealth since the shares were successfully listed on Jan. 5.

Shares in the unified food firm have dropped in value over the past three days, albeit by a small margin, as investors reviewed numbers from the company’s recently issued unaudited financial accounts for the first nine months of 2021.

Research conducted by Billionaires.Africa revealed that shares in BUA Foods had fallen by more than 2.4 percent recently, from N66 ($0.159) at the opening of business on Jan. 17 to N64.4 ($0.1553) as of the time of writing.

The price movement caused the market value of Rabiu’s stake to drop from N1.185 trillion ($2.86 billion) three days ago to N1.156 trillion ($2.79 billion).

As a result, this led to a N28.74-billion ($69.3 million) loss for the billionaire businessman in the last three days.

Since Jan. 5, when shares in the food business were listed on the Nigerian Exchange, the market value of Rabiu’s 99.8-percent shareholding has risen by more than $1.05 billion thanks to continued investor interest.

Despite a drop in fortified sugar sales and a single-digit increase in direct production costs, the newly merged food company BUA Foods recorded a profit of more than $39.9 million in the first nine months of 2021.