Nigeria’s Seven-Up gets $60m takeover offer from majority shareholder

Nigeria’s Seven-Up bottling company has received an offer from its majority shareholder Affelka to buy out minorities for 19.33 billion naira ($60 million), vice chairman Sunil Sawhney told Reuters.

Affelka has offered to acquire 171.5 million shares from minorities at 112.70 naira per share, an 18 percent premium to Thursday’s share price of 95.50 naira.

Shares in the soft drinks maker, which opened for trade at 92.50 naira, rose 5 percent on the news.

“As of now, we have received an offer from the majority shareholder of the company. It’s a financial restructuring,” Sawhney told Reuters.

He said the company has been making losses for some time and that the deal was aimed at restructuring the company, which distributes PepsiCo’s 7up, Pepsi and Mirinda brands of drinks.

Sawhney said delisting Seven-Up from the stock exchange after the takeover would be “logical”. The takeover is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, he said.

Earlier Seven-Up said its board has received an offer from Affelka to acquire all outstanding shares that it does not currently own.