ABUJA (Reuters) - Dangote Cement bought 40.2 million shares in December at 243.02 naira, the first tranche of a buyback programme set to return cash to shareholders, Nigeria’s biggest listed firm said on Monday.
The cement firm, majority-owned by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, aims to buyback up to 10% of its 17.04 billion share capital in tranches, the company has said.
With December’s buyback, Dangote Cement has 17.0 billion shares outstanding. It had said it will buy 82.5 million shares over two tranches.
Dangote Cement traded flat on Monday at 212 naira, valuing the cement firm at 3.60 trillion naira ($9.5 billion).
The company said it will monitor market conditions in deciding on further tranches of the buyback programme. It had considered an open tender for the buyback.