By Chukwuma Umeorah
Champion Breweries Plc has said that it plans to raise a total of N103 billion to finance the acquisition of Bullet Energy Drink and support its long-term expansion strategy.
This was disclosed at the company’s Fact Behind the Figures presentation at the Nigerian Exchange Limited in Lagos on Monday. The capital raising plan will combine both equity and debt financing, marking the largest fundraising effort in the company’s history.
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Inalegwu Adoga, at the event said that the transaction was designed to provide sustainable funding for the brewer’s next phase of growth.
According to him, N58 billion will be raised through equity, split between a rights issue to existing shareholders and a public offering to new investors, while N45 billion will come from a bond programme to be executed in tranches.
“For equity, it will come in two parts, the first being rights issued to existing shareholders so that they have opportunities to participate in our growth, and we also offer the public opportunity to invest in Champion. Both combined, N42 billion for rights issue and N16 billion for public offer sets it at a total of N58 billion. Then in terms of the debt financing, we are looking at it through the instrument of a bond.
“The size of the bond is N45 billion, but the issuance for the first series will focus on N30 billion while the second tranche comes later,” Adoga explained.He stressed that the proceeds would be applied directly to finalise the Bullet acquisition, working capital, and new investments aimed at strengthening operations. “Basically, we have quite a whole lot we’re going to be doing, investing in new packaging lines.
And we’re also going to be investing significantly in recyclable packaging material, which is one of the foundations for driving our market growth and deepening our penetration. And also we’ll be investing in technology. We aim to build our own digital and technology backbone on which we operate independently and autonomously,” he said.
While reiterating the company’s determination to consolidate its leadership position in its core markets and diversifying its product base, Adoga noted that the offers will kick off in the market as soon as it secured regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The capital raising move follows strong financial performance in the first half of 2025. Champion Breweries reported revenue of N16 billion, a 67 per cent year-on-year growth compared to N9.5 billion in the same period of 2024. Gross profit rose by 111 per cent to N8 billion, while profit after tax grew by 692 per cent to N2.3 billion.
Chief Financial Officer, Rasheed Adeboye, said the company’s fundamentals provided a strong basis for its capital raising plan. “Our financial story is that of a company that is resilient, reliable, consistent, and a footing group of our business growth and sustainability. If you look at our estimates of our growth for 2025, we are supposed to grow five times in terms of our profit after tax in 2025. Similarly, in terms of the profit after tax, we are going to grow 10 times of 2024 with the acquisition of Bullet. So Bullet is really going to be a game changer for Champion in the years to come,” he said.
Non-Executive Director, Eric Idiahi, also underscored the significance of the acquisition, describing Bullet as Nigeria’s leading energy drink brand with about 80 million cans sold annually. He disclosed that Champion intends to localise production to reduce reliance on imports and create opportunities for exports.
“Today the entire production of Bullet is done in Belgium and is imported and shipped into Nigeria. Going forward, our goal is to manufacture here aswell. One of the first things we want to do after the transaction is completed is setting up manufacturing in Nigeria. For the West African markets, what we produce in Nigeria, of course, we’ll export to the West African markets,” Idiahi said.
He explained that the acquisition, which extends Champion Breweries’ reach beyond its 11 Nigerian states into 14 African countries, is still subject to regulatory approvals, including clearance from the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC).
