Diageo, owner of Nigerian Guinness Plc on Tuesday announced it is exiting Nigeria following the sell of its controlling shares to Singaporean conglomerate, Tolaram Group.
In a statement by Abidemi Ademola, Guinness’s legal director, the Company said it has offloaded 58.02% of its controlling shares to Tolaram, signalling an end to its 75 year operations in Nigeria.
The statement said Guinness would leave Nigeria next year when it would hand over to the new owners.
“Under the terms of an agreement signed today, 11 June 2024, Tolaram will acquire Diageo’s 58.02% shareholding in Guinness Nigeria royalty agreements for the continued production of the Guinness brand and its locally manufactured Diageo ready-to-drink and mainstream spirits brands.
“The transaction is expected to be completed during fiscal 2025, subject to obtaining the requisite regulatory approvals in Nigeria”.
Diageo, however, stated that the sale of its Nigerian brand would not in any way affect its ownership of the Guinness global brand.
“Diageo will retain ownership of the Guinness brand, which will be licensed to Guinness Nigeria for the long term.”
Diageo’s exit adds to a long list of other multinational companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Microsoft that have left Nigeria in the last one year, citing harsh economic climate.
Some of Diageo’s popular brands in Nigeria include Smirnoff Ice, Smirnoff Vodka, Orijin Bitters, Malta Guinness, Gordons Orange Sunset, and Dubic Malt.
Guinness Nigeria Plc, a public limited liability company quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, was incorporated on April 29, 1950, as a trading company importing Guinness Stout from Dublin.
The Company had in recent time introduced a number of measures, which includes upward adjustment of prices, staff retrenchment and posting, to curb the impact of inflation and high cost of operation.
Despite that, the company recorded a staggering N61.9 billion loss after tax between July 2023 and March 2024, just a few months after Mr Tinubu floated the naira in an effort to unify the currency’s value on the official and parallel foreign exchange markets.
