Presco, Nigeria’s Oil Palm Giant, Opens N236.666bn Rights Issue In Ambitious Expansion Bid
Nigeria’s fully-integrated agrobusiness giant, Presco Plc, specialized in the cultivation of oil palm and in the extraction, refining and fractionation of crude palm oil into finished products, on Wednesday, November 12, announced the opening of fresh capital raising exercise by way of rights to existing shareholders.
The company is asking the shareholders to reinvest a princely N236.666 billion into the business through the offer of 166,666,667 ordinary shares at N1,420 per share on the basis of one new share for every six held as of October 31, 2025.
According to the rights circular made available through the company’s website, Presco Plc, which is majority owned by SIAT Limited, a Belgian firm, plans to utilise ₦170.17 billion or 72.48 percent of the ₦234.77 billion net proceed of the offer for what the directors tagged “settlement of consideration for acquisition” over a six-month period. Within the same period, another ₦41.45 billion or 17.66 percent of the net proceeds is earmarked for working capital obligations, while its ongoing local and international business expansion will gulp the balance ₦23.15 billion or 9.86 per cent.
Explaining the company’s rationale for the rights issue, the chairman, in a letter to shareholders, said the offer is to enable the company position for the huge opportunities in the oil palm value-chain, broaden market presence at a time when Nigeria, despite its agric potentials, only accounts for a mere 2% to the global oil palm production. Due to this yawning gap, he said the country is still a net importer of palm oil, hence the growing competition within the sector as many investors embark on backward integration.
Against this backdrop, he said Presco Plc must consider the combination of organic and inorganic value accretion initiatives if it must position for sustained growth and become the most profitable, sustainable and fully integrated edible oils group in the Sub-Saharan African region while also supporting our objective of narrowing the supply-demand gap in Nigeria’s oil palm industries.
With this emerging scenario, the chairman said it is crucial that Presco Plc has “a sound financial foundation to support the execution of its future objectives,” like undertaking acquisition of strategic operators within the industry.
Specifically, he said Presco is considering a 100% equity stake in Ghana Oil Palm Development Limited (GOPDC), a deciion that was reqached last year, and approved by shareholders at the Annual General meeting of August 19, 2025, making it a regional player. Presco is also targeting a planned acquisition of Saro Oil Palm Limited, and that both will be financed through the rights proceeds.According to the filing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited platform by Federick Ichekwai, Company Secretary to Presco Plc, the rights which opens between Wednesday November 12 to Tuesday, December 2, 2025, “are tradable on the floor of the NGX for the duration of the acceptance period.”
According to a filing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited platform by Federick Ichekwai, Company Secretary of Presco Plc, the rights issue which opened on Wednesday November 12 and closes Tuesday, December 2, 2025, “are tradable on the floor of the NGX for the duration of the acceptance period.”
