PZ Cussons, a soap manufacturer, announced on Tuesday that it has offered to buy out PZ Cussons Nigeria’s minority owners and plans to delist the company from the Nigerian stock exchange due to “foreign exchange challenges” in the nation.
In light of recent macroeconomic changes and foreign exchange difficulties, the group “believes the offer to be attractive for the minority shareholders of PZCN,” the business stated in a statement.After the nation eliminated a popular but expensive gasoline subsidy and weakened the currency, inflation in Africa’s largest economy, which has been in double digits since 2016, increased to its highest level in nearly two decades in July at 24.08%, compared to 22.79% in June.
The Manchester-based company predicted in June that the depreciation of the naira, the currency of Nigeria, would hurt its profit in 2019. The PZ Cussons proposal to the PZCN board is to pay 22.8 million pounds ($28.7 million) in exchange for the minority shareholders’ 26.73% interest.
The firm said that current naira cash reserves are anticipated to provide the transaction’s funding.
GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria said last month that it would cease operations after considering the pros and drawbacks of switching to a third-party distribution model for its pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare products.
