Cherie Blair
Ahead of its planned sale of shares in the United Kingdom, Dangote Cement Plc has appointed former Xstrata Plc Chief Executive Officer Mick Davis as a non-executive director alongside Cherie Blair, a lawyer and the wife of ex-U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, as Nigeria’s largest company looks to strengthen its board.
Bloomberg reports that Dangote, owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, also named Joseph Makoju as permanent CEO after a four-month stint in an acting capacity, according to two emailed statements Monday.
While the continent’s biggest cement producer didn’t give a reason for the high-profile non-executive director appointments, people familiar with the matter said in February that Lagos-based Dangote has revived plans for a share sale in London that could raise about $1 billion. Discussions are ongoing and a listing may or may not go ahead, they said.
Makoju’s appointment “points to a good direction for succession planning and corporate governance,” Olalekan Olabode, equity analyst at Vetiva Capital Management, said by phone from Lagos. The appointment of Cherie Blair “is a way of improving the quality of the members of the board, which is positive for the planned London listing,” he said.
Davis ran Xstrata, the mining giant now owned by Glencore Plc, for twelve years through 2013. He’s now the chairman of Macsteel and the CEO of the U.K.’s ruling Conservative party.
