The Nigerian Stock Exchange (“NSE”) has downgraded Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc from its “Special Pricing Status” category following the fall in share price of the company’s stock to below N100.

In a circular made available at the weekend, the NSE said that it would downgrade Seven-Up Bottling Company from a “High-Priced Stock” category to the general stock category with effect from Monday 23 October, 2017.

“We bring to your notice that 7up Bottling Plc has qualified to be reclassified from a high-price stock to a medium-priced stock, as the company’s shares hit below the N100 mark on 30 May 2017, and trades below N100 up till the close of business on 17 October 2017. This indicates that 7up Bottling Plc has traded below N100 in at least four out of the last six months. The stockbrokers will be able to move the price of 7up Bottling Plc with 50,000 units with effect from 23rd, October 2017,” the NSE statement read.

The “High Priced Stocks”, according to the NSE categorization, are stocks with share prices of N100 and above and regular and pre-determined level of activities. In 2012, the NSE introduced the market making pilot programme under which stock brokers could move more prices of “high priced stocks” with 10,000 shares as against the general operating rule of 50,000 shares for the movement of share prices of other stocks.

Some of the companies that remain in the “high-priced stocks” category include Nestle Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, among others.

Notable Beverage Company that has been downgraded from the special pricing status in the past one year is Guinness Nigeria Plc which was reclassified into the regular pricing status on Monday 3rd April 2017.

Seven-Up Bottling Company has seen its earnings dip into the negative since the second quarter of the 2016/2017 financial year as its struggles under the weight of the recession.

7-Up is the sole bottler and marketer of PepsiCo brands in Nigeria such as Pepsi-Cola, 7-Up, Mirinda, Aquafina bottled water, among others.