Leading construction firm, Julius Berger Nigeria (JBN) Plc is set to raise additional capital of N7.5 billion to boost its operations. The funds would be raised through any form of debt and or equity instrument by way of public offering, private placement, rights issue or other method deem fit by the directors.
However, the shareholders of the company will approve the capital raising exercise at the 44th Annual General Meeting of scheduled to in Abuja in June.
The shareholders will also increase the authorised share capital of JBN from N622.500 million, comprising 1.245 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo, to N800 million, comprising 1.6 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo.
In addition, the directors are seeking the approval of shareholders to issue up to 150 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in the authorised share capital of the company to identified investor(s) by way of special placement, at a price per share to be determined on the basis of the volume weighted average closing price derived from the daily official list of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over the 90 day period immediately preceding the date on which the company obtains the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
JBN recently declared a bonus of one new share for every 10 shares held in addition to dividend of N2.70 per share for the year ended December 31, 2013.
The company reported a revenue of N212 billion for the 2013 financial year, compared with N201 billion in 2012. Profit before tax stood at N16.2 billion, as against N12.3 billion in 2012, while profit after tax fell from N8 billion to N7.8 billion. The directors recommended a dividend of N2.70 per share for the year compared with N2.50 in the 2012.
This article was first reported in Thisday
Comment
This is another fund raising conundrum for me. You plan to raise N7.5b via a special placement yet you just proposed to pay dividends of about N3.2b including bonus issues worth another N8.4b. You may also opine that the funds being raised may not be immediately available. However, this is basically all about keeping share price bullish.
