Alhaji Aliko Dangote, past President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday promised the listing of companies under the Dangote Group of companies on the nation’s bourse.
The companies include Refinery and Petrochemical.
Dangote stated this at the bell ringing ceremony on the NSE in Lagos as part of activities to mark his 60th birthday.
He said that he would ensure the listing of more of his companies on the NSE to deepen the market.
Dangote assured the stock broking community that he would continue to work with the Federal Government to diversify the economy and spread prosperity among Nigerians.
“We will continue work with the federal government to diversify the economy and spread prosperity to Nigerians,’’ he said.
He promised to list every single company that would be created by Dangote Group of companies.
“Very soon, we will start having our Annual General Meetings (AGM) in stadium, not halls due to the large shareholders we will be targeting. We will be having up to two million shareholders in the next ten years,” he said.
He, however, commended the stock broking community for their support to Dangote Group, noting that they had contributed to the growth of the entity.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the four companies of Dangote listed on the NSE have a total market capitalisation of N2.9 trillion as at April 10.
This represents 32.7 per cent of the total capitalisation of the equities listed on the Nigerian bourse.
Alhaji Rasheed Yussuf, the former President, Association of Stock broking Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) described Dangote as an important stakeholder in the Nigerian capital market.
“His decision to celebrate his birthday with the capital market community is a testimony to the mutually beneficial relationship to which has been involved over the years between Dangote, brokers and capital market in generally,” Yussuf said.
He said that the tenure of Dangote as the president of NSE was the most challenging period for the capital market due to serious management succession crisis and ravaging margin loan crisis.
“Dangote worked tirelessly with ASHON, leveraging on his contacts to make presentation to the various level of government functionality, CBN, among others.
“This culminated in the setting up of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and eventual resolution of the margin loan problems,” he added.
He noted further that if the margin loan crisis had not been resolved the way it was, the collateral damage on the operators and the market would have been enormous.
Yussuf added that as a strong promoter of local content development in Nigeria, Dangote took the pioneering step of listing most of his companies on the floor of NSE, substantially deepening the market.
Yussuf said that the listed companies of Dangote constituted a reasonable percentage of equities on the nation’s bourse. (NAN) JNC/EEE
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