Nigeria: International Breweries to raise $457.7 million in share sales this year

International Breweries Plc, the Nigerian unit of AB InBev SA, said it plans to raise as much as 165 billion naira ($457.7 million) in a share sale this year, as it seeks to curb costs and halt losses, Bloomberg reported on October 31.

Current investors may get share offers in November if the company obtains the approval of Nigerian regulators, it said in an emailed presentation on October 31. The plan was approved by its board in September.

Losses by International Breweries increased to 16.4 billion naira in the nine months through September from 7 billion naira a year earlier as financing costs rose.

“Financing cost pressures will continue as we work towards closing out the rights issue by year end,” the brewer, which operates four production plants in Africa’s most populous nation, said in the statement.

Nigeria’s biggest brewer by market value after Heineken’s local unit is also challenged by a hike in taxes on beer and spirits which depressed revenue in the third quarter, according to the company. Nigerian authorities started phased increase in duties on alcoholic beverages last year as part of measures to counter flagging revenue from the key oil industry.

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