Debt levels among Nigeria’s listed corporates showed mixed patterns in the first half of 2025.
Some companies aggressively expanded leverage to fund growth and operations, while others reduced borrowings in response to margin pressures and higher finance costs.
Nigeria’s corporate debt landscape in H1 2025 reveals a sharp divergence between aggressive borrowing by some firms and strategic deleveraging by others.
Total borrowings across key listed companies highlight both sectoral pressures and growth-driven capital deployment.
Oil and gas operators like Oando Plc and Seplat Energy Plc expanded their debt significantly to fund upstream projects and restructuring, while Dangote Cement maintained high leverage to support capacity expansion.
In contrast, consumer-facing giants like Nigerian Breweries and Nestlé Nigeria scaled back borrowings to preserve margins amid inflationary and foreign-exchange headwinds.
The debt ratios provide further insight: negative equity positions at Oando, Nestlé, and MTN Nigeria flag balance sheet risks despite strong or improving operating cash flows, while firms like BUA Cement, Transcorp, and Beta Plc display disciplined leverage and robust interest coverage.
This mix of aggressive borrowing, conservative funding strategies, and balance-sheet recalibration underscores the varied approaches Nigerian corporates are taking to navigate volatile macroeconomic conditions, high interest rates, and capital-intensive growth plans.
Below is a breakdown of each company’s debt position, growth trend, and structure.
Beta Plc trimmed its total borrowings slightly by 4.08% YoY, to N34.77 billion from N36.25 billion.
- Current debt: N5.59 billion
- Non-current debt: N29.18 billion
Beta Plc stands out as one of the strongest financial profiles in this group. By the first half of 2025, the company had total borrowings of N34.77 billion, offset by N12.40 billion in cash and cash equivalents, resulting in a net debt of N22.37 billion, modest when compared with its operational scale.
Its debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43x and debt-to-capital ratio of 0.30x reflect a conservative, well-structured approach to borrowing—only about 30% of its funding comes from debt, with the remainder supported by shareholders’ equity. A debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.16x indicates that total borrowings could be comfortably repaid within just over a year of operating earnings. Meanwhile, an asset-to-equity ratio of 2.07x signals balanced financing that avoids excessive reliance on borrowings while still leveraging debt to support growth.
Most notably, Beta’s interest coverage ratio of 18.36x underscores exceptional earnings strength relative to its interest obligations, meaning it can cover annual interest payments more than 18 times over—an indicator of strong solvency. Although smaller in scale than some peers, Beta maintains a predominantly long-term debt structure, suggesting stable financing arrangements even amid a marginal reduction in borrowings.
