Honeywell Group sets sights on key growth sectors

Honeywell Group sets sights on key growth sectors

There are numerous reasons why Nigeria, a member of the Next Eleven (N-11), the eleven countries that are said to have the potential to become the next biggest economies in the 21st Century by Goldman Sachs, has increasingly been viewed as a viable attractive investment destination. Like other countries in the group, ‘Nigeria’s attractive demographics, increased domestic consumption and other factors could make it a significant contributor to global growth in the next decade’

The story of investment in Nigeria would be incomplete without mentioning Honeywell Group, a family-owned investment holding company of Nigerian heritage which has a stated vision of “creating value that transcends generations.”

This is why during the centenary celebrations in 2014, Honeywell Group was recognised by the Federal Government as one of the top 100 companies in the country.

Honeywell Group, founded in 1972 by Dr Oba Otudeko started as a food trading company operated across the West African region before diversifying to importation of goods. Since then it has evolved to become an investment company with interests across various sectors of the economy including foods, real estate, energy, infrastructure, financial services and many more.

The group’s participation in these sectors is done through companies such as Anchorage Leisures Limited, Uraga Real Estate Limited, Pivot GIS Limited, HOGL Energy Limited and until recently Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (more on this later).

Honeywell Group has a rich pedigree of making strategic investment moves, which has seen it enter new sectors through partnership and exit investments at opportune times for both the Group and its portfolio companies. Examples abound including its early investment in Econet Wireless, Nigeria’s first GSM operator to go live, which it successfully exited through a sale to Airtel, to the transfer of its significant holdings in Fan Milk Nigeria to the Abraaj/Danone Consortium. Honeywell Group’s divestiture from Honeywell Flour Mills Plc (HFMP), which will see the Group transfer a 71.69% stake in HFMP to Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) is another recent example.

The transaction, still subject to regulatory approvals, is a move by both companies to create a more resilient national champion in the Nigerian foods industry while ensuring that thousands of jobs will be preserved, and thousands more will be created in the future.

This kind of playing field is one that the deal between Honeywell Group and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc sets the new combined entity upon. Usually, transactions like this raise questions of job security. […]

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