NASCON Allied Industries Plc, the salt-producing division of Dangote Industries Limited, will discuss a business merger with two other food companies in the group at a meeting of its directors’ board later this month.
According to a regulatory filing on Thursday, the union will combine the salt producer with Dangote Sugar, owners of the largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa, and Dangote Rice into a single business.
NASCON and Dangote Sugar are both listed in Lagos, while Dangote Rice is not yet quoted. Aliko Dangote, who is the richest man in Africa, owns the majority of a wide range of businesses through his holding company, Dangote Industries Limited.
A proposed merger is expected to occur about 31 months after the group’s most intense rival, BUA Group, announced a similar move consolidating its food businesses – rice, sugar, flour, edible oils and flour – into a new company known as BUA Foods.
Following its initial public offering on the Nigerian Exchange, BUA Foods is currently the largest consumer goods firm in Nigeria in terms of market capitalization, with assets valued over N2.4 trillion as of Thursday’s market opening and N649.6 billion in total as of March 31.
The second-richest individual in Nigeria and the fourth-richest person in Africa, Abdul Samad Rabiu, is the owner of BUA Group.
On Thursday, Dangote Sugar and NASCON began trading, with respective market capitalizations of N329.8 billion and N70.2 billion.
As of the end of March, the two were reported to have assets worth N558.9 billion and N59.2 billion, respectively.
