NASCON Allied Industries Plc said it had put on hold the proposed merger deal with Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) disapproval.

The company disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, April 18 signed by its secretary, A. A. Samuel.

It said the merger was suspended on the grounds of the non-operational status of Dangote Rice Limited.

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“Nascon Allied Industries Plc hereby notifies the Nigerian Exchange Limited and the investing public, that further to its announcement of August 30, 2023, in respect of the proposed merger of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Nascon and Dangote Rice Limited, a decision has been taken to suspend the said merger at this time.

“The suspension is due to the comments and recommendation of the Securities and Exchange Commission centred around the current non-operational status of Dangote Rice Limited. Nascon wishes to express its appreciation to all its stakeholders and will keep the public informed of any developments as they arise,” Nascon said.

The group head of corporation communications at Dangote Industries Limited, Anthony Chiejina, corroborated that the suspension was at the behest of the regulatory authority and made no further comments.

The ICIR reports that the deal was earlier proposed as an internal restructuring to be executed through a scheme of mergers in which Dangote Sugar was supposed to offer cash consideration and share consideration to shareholders of NASCON and Dangote Rice.

The consideration offered was 11 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in Dangote Sugar, credited as fully paid-up shares, for every 12 NASCON shares of 50 kobo each, which totals 2,428,651,847 new ordinary shares of the company (Dangote Sugar).

There was also a 14 ordinary shares offer of 50 kobo each in Dangote Sugar, credited as fully paid-up shares, for every one ordinary share of N1.00 kobo each in Dangote Rice share, which totals 2,775,792,508 new ordinary shares of Dangote Sugar.