Here is what Renaissance Capital had to say about the Lafarge Deal as culled from Reuters;
Analysts at Renaissance Capital maintained its buy recommendation on Lafarge Wapco but said the deal could dilute existing shareholders and maintained its target price of 130 naira per share on the stock. Lafarge Wapco traded at 112.07 naira on Wednesday, up 1.71 percent.
“We believe that … there are attractive assets in the mix, pricing is a real issue and some of the assets involved would dilute shareholder value,” Renaissance Capital said in a note.
“We favour the acquisitions of Unicem and Ashaka Cement, but take a negative view on the inclusion of Atlas Cement and Lafarge South Africa at the indicated price.”
Just in case you missed it, here is the summary of the deal again
Lafarge owns 60 percent of Lafarge Wapco, its listed subsidiary in Nigeria, 58.6 percent of another Nigerian listed company Ashaka Cement Plc, and 100 percent of the Atlas cement company. It has joint ownership with Holcim of privately held United Cement Company of Nigeria. It owns 100 percent of the Lafarge South African business.
The consolidation will enable Lafarge to accelerate growth on the African continent and expand its product offering in South Africa and across the region, the cement maker has said as a reason for the merging both businesses.
Lafarge faces intense competition in Africa, especially from arch rival Dangote Cement, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. The company, Nigeria’s biggest with a market capitalisation of around $24 billion, is set to roll out cement plants across Africa.
