BUA Foods, Nigeria’s most valuable listed firm, is expecting its profitability run to extend through the end of the year as the consumer goods giant doubles down on its expansion strategy to hold a larger slice of the growing food market.
“For us, generally, we continue to drive expansion strategy, both in the domestic and the regional markets. In terms of what to expect for the end of the year, we believe that we will close the year on a very strong financial performance, as we have seen in the first nine months,” Ayodele Abioye, managing director of BUA Foods, said at the company’s investors’ call on Friday.
With product expansion in rice, flour, and pasta, BUA Foods is ramping up its backward integration programme, specifically for its sugar segment—a development Abioye said presents an opportunity to refine over 200,000 metric tons of sugar annually.
The firm is equally cutting its energy expense. Energy costs continue to be a pressure point for manufacturers, with the 17 biggest companies by market capitalisation seeing a 77 percent jump in costs in one year, according to an analysis by BusinessDay.
But BUA Foods is diversifying its supply and investing in renewable energy in what helped the company optimise its costs and reduce downtime, Abioye said.
Responding to questions around embarking on capital expenditure next year, Abioye said the company will be “maintaining a very disciplined capex approach” as it aims to continue to focus on completing ongoing projects.
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“Additionally, our investment is going into other business segments such as flour, pasta, and rice, edible oil, and will continue to be driven to include expanding supply chain capabilities, which we believe will support demand improvement and supply gaps. These are the things we expect in 2026, and we believe that we will leverage these projects to continue to drive our growth strategy,” the MD said.
BUA Foods, which started the year at N7.52 trillion market capitalisation, has gone on to overtake MTN Nigeria and Dangote Cement, with its valuation currently at N12.5 trillion, placing the food giant as the most capitalised firm on the Nigerian Exchange.
This more than 50 percent leap in valuation was driven by strong profit and investors’ confidence in the company’s fundamentals. Net profit at AbdulSamad Rabiu’s BUA Foods more than doubled to N405.3 billion in the nine months to September 2o25.
The surge in profitability was underpinned by a 32.7 percent increase in revenue to N1.4 trillion and a material decline in net finance costs, together with an almost complete elimination of foreign exchange losses, reflecting improved currency stability during the review period.
Speaking on the outlook for 2026, Abioye said the company intends to maintain its growth trajectory while delivering value for its shareholders and driving its backward integration project, as well as its value chain integration project.
Shares of BUA Foods have gained 66.9 percent since January, closing the market on Friday at N692.5 per share. That makes the firm 61st on the NGX in terms of year-to-date performance.