Lagos — An indigenous food manufacturing company with special focus on the production and marketing of flour and wheat products, Honeywell Plc, yesterday joined the league of quoted companies.

With the successful listing of its N67.41 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the shares which were listed at a unit price of N8.50k per share, appreciated maximally by 5 per cent to close at N8.92k per share at the end of transactions yesterday.

Speaking at the listing, the Chief executive Officer/Managing Director, Mr Babatunde Odunayo, said the company is one of four flour mill companies that control about 75 per cent of wheat flour market in the country, adding that the company controls 18 per cent of the market share.

He said the production of the company is dependent on its individual power project, with a capacity of 12 Megawatts, through a commissioned gas plant in January this year.

He said that the company has successfully introduced a gamut of new products in an effort to improve its market share, listing some of the products as Honeywell whole wheat meal, and Honeywell pasta.

He explained that the production capacity of the Semolina was recently expanded, thereby increasing the production from 65 metric tones to 101 metric tones per day.

Speaking on the company's Initial Public Offer which include offer for subscription and offer for sale, amounting to N18.64 billion, Odunayo said that the offer for sale was 93 per cent subscribed, while the offer for subscription was 98 per cent subscribed.

On the company's financials, he said though it recorded a turnover of N28.6 billion and profit before of tax of N687 million, the performance was adversely affected by the loss of N540 million at the exchange, arising from the deliberate devaluation of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The profit after tax of N828 million for the half-year ended 30th September was also affected by deferred tax charge of N388 million

Also speaking at the listing, the Chairman of the company and the immediate past President of NSE, Mr. Oba Otudeko, urged the real sector to leverage on the platform of the stock market to enhance the development of the economy, stating that the need has arisen for small industries to bring their activities to the market.

"We need to bring our activities to the market, in this way, our real sector will be decongested. We as a company would use the support of the market to be as transparent as much as we can," he said.

The company has a paid up share capital of N3.97 billion, comprising of 7.93 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, and authorized share capital of N4 billion, comprising of 8 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.