Lagos - Tiger Brands is still interested in investing in Nigeria despite pulling out of
a flour milling business it acquired that never turned
a profit, says local conglomerate UAC.
UAC’s chief executive, Larry Ettah, said on Friday that its partnership with
the food company was paying dividends and that in recent conversations the South African firm had said
Nigeria remained important
as it looked to expand abroad.
Tiger bought 49 percent of UAC’s food business in 2010 but since then it has had to sell its 65.7 percent stake in its loss-making Nigerian flour division for $1 to Dangote Industries, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, having bought it for $200 million in 2012.
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The joint venture company UAC Foods Limited posted a pretax profit of 1.14billion naira last year, down from 1.43bn naira, though Ettah said the company “was still paying dividends”.
No one at Tiger was immediately available for comment.