RT Briscoe Offers 125m Shares to Investors
Stories by Uche Obike and Tunyosola Ayansiji
Stakeholders have endorsed that R.T. Briscoe (Nigeria) Plc should raise fresh funds from the nation's capital market by way of Offer for Subscription of 125,000.000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each of at N5.00 per share. Application for the Offer for Subscription opens July 26, 2004 and closes on August 23, 2004.
Following the company's recent successful Completion Board Meeting held in Lagos, the investing public are now free to buy the shares of RT Briscoe even at a lower price value compared with its current market value at N7.22 per share.
Those who were at the meeting to endorse the official opening of the Offer were top officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), dealing members of the NSE, solicitors to the Offer, top management of the issuing house to the offer - FCMB Capital Markets, a division of First City Monument Bank Limited, and several key individuals representing strategic domestic and foreign institutional investors.
Information revealed in the prospectus to the Offer shows that the company is making the Offer to enable it expand its capital base, as well as finance working capital and its business expansion strategy. It also explains that the additional working capital is intended to enable the company compete favourably and achieve sustainable financial leverage.
Meanwhile, the proceeds of the Offer, estimated at N625 million, in addition to the proceeds of the Rights Issue, estimated at N312.5 million, will result in gross proceeds of N937.5 million.
A breakdown of the estimated net proceeds of N877,184,512.50, after deducting the combined costs of the two offers which are estimated at N60,315,487.50 (representing 6.43 per cent of gross proceeds).
In a statement to the shareholders of the company, the Chairman, Chief Clement Adekunle Olowokande said the future of RT Briscoe Nigeria remains bright.
"Restructuring over the years has put it in a strong position to consolidate its considerable experience in the motor and technical business. The turnover has over the last 5 years grown by 80 per cent and has increased from N6 million per employee to over N25 million per employee. The focus is on the strengthening of sales and marketing capabilities, and at the same time improving the productivity and efficiency of the company. Much emphasis has been placed on quality service delivery and as a consequence, profitability. The board is currently nurturing an opportunity that is bound to dramatically improve and expand the scope of the motor business," he said.
It could be recalled that Olowokande told shareholders at the company's recent Annual General Meeting that the year 2003 was a memorable one for the company as turnover increased by over 20 per cent, while profit after tax also grew dramatically from N160.4 million in 2002 to N419 million in 2003. Shareholders' funds grew by 67 per cent. Return on equity was 46 per cent in 2003, as against 29 per cent the preceding year. Earnings per share also increased by 160 per cent to 279 kobo in 2003 from 107 kobo in 2002.
The company was incorporated in Nigeria on March 9, 1957, as a private limited liability company and became a wholly owned subsidiary of East Asiatic Company Ltd. A/S (EAC) of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1961. The company started its business activities in Nigeria with the importation of building materials and some English trucks under an agency arrangement brokered by its parent company. It became a public company in 1973 and was granted a listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1974. In 2002, Asset and Resource Management Company Limited (ARM), an investment management services company and subsidiary of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, acquired the majority shareholding from EAC.
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