Ibeto Cement plans public listing with $850m investment deal with Milost

Nigerian billionaire businessman, Cletus Ibeto, is planning to expand his cement business, Ibeto Cement Company Limited, to the global market.

Ibeto Cement, which was pushed out of the Nigerian market by Dangote Cement, is sealing a $850-million financing deal with American private equity firm, Milost Global Incorporated.

A statement issued by Milost Global revealed that Ibeto has already executed a binding Milost Equity Subscription Agreement (MESA) for the $850 million deal.

In addition, Ibeto has started the process of going public a reverse merger in the United States as efforts to become a publicly traded company.

“On Friday May 25, the Nigerian Dollar Billionaire Chief Cletus Ibeto personally consummated the acquisition of a publicly traded company that he will used to reverse the assets of his cement business in America, the final acquisition and definitive agreements have already been executed,” Milost Global said in the statement.

The public listing will allow Ibeto Cement to raise enough capital in the US public markets outside the Milost financing and put the company in the forefront of the cement industry in Africa as Ibeto plans expand beyond west Africa through the acquisition of other profitable cement businesses outside Nigeria within the next 12 months.

Ibeto said, “Our key strategic objective in the vast and extensive development of the cement business in Nigeria and the West African sub-region is to make cement affordable to all Nigerians and tiers of government to develop modest homes and related road infrastructure.

“It is my honest belief that this reverse merger will enable us to accomplish this. In line with our strategic intent and objective, we are geared to be a world-class cement company in terms of quality, affordability, innovation, service, environment, safety, and corporate governance and also to be a part of building the country’s needed infrastructure all of which certainly guarantees good returns on investment for stakeholders.”

This news will likely start another round of cement war between old rivals Ibeto Cement and Dangote Cement, which currently trades on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and controls about 65% of the market share.