…Set for US Stock Exchange listing
Ibeto Cement Company Limited has announced a reverse merger with its acquisition of Century Petroleum Corporation, a United States of America (USA), publicly traded petroleum exploration and production company.
A statement by Ibeto Cement said the company has acquired 70 per cent control of Century Petroleum Corporation, resulting in the reverse merger of Ibeto Cement’s assets into Century Petroleum. Dr. Cletus M. Ibeto, has already taken over as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
By this reverse merger, to be sealed and publicly presented in 90 days, Ibeto Cement will achieve the historic milestone of being the first Nigerian firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ibeto said, “it has been a long journey since we have been in business and none of our companies or businesses has gone public so far. In line with our collective dream to place Nigeria in its rightful place in the comity of nations, we had to come up with a strategy to build a formidable structure for companies that will outlive me.”
He lauded stakeholders in the historic merger, including the Federal Government, shareholders, investors, and the larger Nigerian society for this landmark development, which will improve the level of actualisation of the huge cement business opportunities around Africa.
“Everybody knows that Ibeto Group has billions of dollar investments in Nigeria but the time has come to replicate the successes we have enjoyed in Africa and globally. Century Petroleum Corp is the vehicle for using our wealth of experience for the benefit of people within and beyond Africa. We will use it as a catalyst of empowerment for all Nigerians the world over as the company’s shares will be traded internationally,” he said.
Ibeto Cement Company Limited, located in Bundu Ama, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, began cement bagging operations at its bagging terminal in Port Harcourt in 2005. It is an ultra-modern bagging plant with a flat-storage capacity of 50,000 metric tonnes and a production capacity of 1,500,000 metric tonnes per annum, which translates to a production capacity of 4,000+ metric tonnes per day.
In line with Nigerian’s Backward Integration Policy (BIP) on cement and in response to the Federal Government’s call to increase local production of cementthe Company acquired the premier Nigeria Cement Company Limited (Nigercem), which has a plant located in Nkalagu, Ebonyi State.
The strategic acquisition of Nigercem is aimed at expediting Ibeto Cement’s local production of cement by resuscitating the Nigercem plant and developing the project, as a brand new dry process plant.
The company is also developing another 6,000 metric tonnes per day (tpd) cement plant at Cross River State and Abia State.
Analysts believe that as Chairman of the new global entity, Ibeto’s success record and vast experience in weathering the storms and growing businesses from scratch in developing economies, will aid the actualisation of Nigeria’s potential of exporting cement to other sub-Saharan African countries.
World Bank statistics confirm 60 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated population is caught in the trap of homelessness. A report by Morgan Stanley, a US multinational financial services firm, states that cement consumption per capita tends to rise initially with rising GDP per capita but falls as countries mature economically. It is predicted that consumption of cement in sub-Saharan Africa will grow by an average of between 7 per cent and 10 per cent year-on-year over the next two decades. African nations are currently at the low end of cement consumption relative to other emerging economies.
