Greek-American investor wants to take over Flour Mills of Nigeria

The complete possession and management of the nation’s premier miller, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, could possibly be handed on to John Coumantaros, the Greek-American inheritor of George Coumantaros, the miller’s deceased founder.

In 1963, the older Coumantaros gave the entity a go as a mono-product enterprise, constructing it from a modest manufacturing facility on a Lagos seaport into a bunch value N2.3 trillion in annual turnover.

That feat of income era, unmatched by any Nigerian financial institution or banking group besides Entry Holdings, underscores the manufacturing behemoth the enterprise simply as previous as Nigeria’s independence has remodeled into in a little bit over six many years.

The late Coumantaros, a yachtsman from Athens who sowed the seed of the empire which blossomed over time to stretch inwards to different elements of West Africa, notably Liberia, imagined wheat milling for a begin.

At present, its scope of exercise is rather more complicated and diversified. The corporate has developed and branched out into totally different operations inside and outdoors meals processing together with logistics, port operations, actual property, energy era and agribusiness.

Belongings now complete N1.48 trillion, however the valuation even touched a barely larger stage earlier within the yr.

Excelsior Transport Firm, which the most recent annual report of Flour Mills of Nigeria says is the producer’s mother or father firm, is an offshore belief registered in Liberia.

The entity has little or no on-line presence, no identified web site and none of its operations and actions are seen on the web.

Liberia, as a tax haven (a rustic whose legal guidelines shelter people and companies from paying tax on revenue earned overseas), was marked for sanctions by the Organisation for Financial Cooperation and Growth in 2000 and has been pinpointed by the Tax Justice Community as accounting for 0.42 per cent of the world’s company tax abuse dangers.

Established by Mr Coumantaros (now deceased), Excelsior Transport Firm, which has a controlling stake of 63.3 per cent in Flour Mills of Nigeria, now has John Coumantaros, the son of its proprietor, as the person in cost.

The youthful Coumantaros has additionally been chairman of the meals firm since 2014.

Takeover particulars

Flour Mills of Nigeria wrote the Nigerian Change on Tuesday to speak the belief’s resolution.

The belief on Tuesday wrote the Nigerian Change, the place Flour Mills of Nigeria’s shares are listed, to speak its transfer to purchase out different shareholders – particular person and institutional traders who collectively maintain the corporate’s 37.7 per cent minority shareholding.

Flour Mills mentioned a key approval from the Securities and Change Fee, the inventory market regulator, is in place for the transaction to proceed.

Extra importantly, the determinant of the course the deal will head finally is a statutory assembly of the corporate and its shareholders mounted for 14 November, the place minority shareholders will resolve to promote or maintain on to their pursuits.

The N70 per share the acquirer is providing is 26.2 per cent larger than the worth at which Flour Mills of Nigeria opened for commerce on Tuesday. It implies Excelsior Transport Firm is placing ahead greater than N105 billion to take the corporate personal.

“The Scheme can be topic to the approval of the shareholders of Flour Mills on the Courtroom-Ordered Assembly in addition to the sanction of the Federal Excessive Courtroom,” the meals firm mentioned within the submitting.

Flour Mills is almost all proprietor of Northern Nigerian Flour Mills, a Lagos-quoted miller with complete belongings of N21.6 billion.

It ranks alongside Dangote Sugar and BUA Meals as Nigeria’s prime sugar makers and is the producer of TopFeeds and the favored Golden Penny merchandise, which embrace edible oils, bread unfold and sugar.