The Nigerian Exchange Limited, on Wednesday formally delisted the entire shares in issue of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc from its main board, following  the approval of shareholders at the court-ordered meeting on Thursday, November 14, 2024.

Consequently, shareholders of the company are to receive a cash payment of ₦86 for each unit held as of December 10, 2024, subject to a mandatory 10% deduction for Withholding Tax (WHT). The new amount payable is however an improvement of ₦16 or 22.85% over the ₦70 per share initially proposed by the majority shareholders.

Recall that the board of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, had earlier notified the NGX of an order by Justice Yellim S. Bogoro of the Federal High Court, Lagos, for a meeting of the company’s shareholders on November 14, 2024, to consider a buyout by Excelsior Shipping Company Limited, subject to the approval of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).

For this, the directors of Flour Mills are offering N70 for each to the minority shareholders for each scheme share transferred, after which the company will be de-listed from the NGX.

Following that date, all share certificates representing the interests of the Scheme Shareholders, according to the document jointly signed by Joseph Umolu, Company Secretary and Group Director, Legal Services, and the law firm of Banwo & Ighodalo, the Legal Adviser, “shall be deemed to be dematerialized and in the case of dematerialised shares, all the shares of the company that were lodged with the CSCS in the names of the Scheme Shareholders shall be transferred to Excelsior Shipping Company Limited and Greywise Investment Solutions Limited” (the majority shareholders.

For this purpose, the NGX and Central Securities Clearing System Plc are to be notified and requested to terminate trading in the shares with effect from the eligibility date and no trading or transfer of the company’s shares shall be registered thereafter.

Greywise Investment Solutions Limited, the wholly owned subsidiary of Excelsior Shipping holds 2,597,314,890 as of March 2023, representing 63.34% of the paid up share capital, with no other individual shareholder holding up to 5% of same.