The Nation Newspaper

Category: Equities

  • Eland Oil delisted from AIM

    By Emeka Ugwuanyi

     

    Following the completion of acquisition by Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc of Eland Oil & Gas Plc, trading of the Eland shares on AIM has been cancelled with effect from December 18, last year and the company delisted from AIM.

    On October 15, last year, the boards of Seplat and Eland announced that they had agreed on the terms of a recommended cash acquisition by Seplat of the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Eland to be implemented via a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006.

    A  document was posted to Eland shareholders on October 28, last year, setting out the terms of the Acquisition called (the “Scheme Document”).

    On December 12, last year, Seplat and Eland announced that the court had sanctioned the Scheme.

    Eland and Seplat announced that the Court Order sanctioning the Scheme has been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. Accordingly, the Scheme has now become Effective and the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Eland is wholly owned by Seplat.

    Also as a result of the Scheme becoming effective, share certificates on Eland shares have ceased to be valid and of value and entitlements to Eland shares held in uncertificated form in Crest will be cancelled.

    Scheme Shareholders on the register at the Scheme on December 16, last year, will receive 166 pence in cash for each scheme share. The consideration due to the Scheme Shareholders will be sent by no later than 31 December 31, 2019.

    Also each of the non-Executive Eland directors has resigned as a director of Eland with immediate effect. Details of the acquisition are set out in the Scheme Document.

    According to a document made available to The Nation, on December 10, last year, Seplat entered into an amended and restated US$350 million revolving credit facility, which is available on a “certain funds” basis thereto to fund the cash consideration payable by Seplat to Eland Shareholders (and participants of the Eland Share Schemes) pursuant to the Acquisition.

    Read Also: Seplat, Eland Oil stakeholders resolve acquisition issues

     

    As a result of entering into the Revolving Credit Facility, the US$350 million Bridge Facility Agreement, entered into with Citibank, N.A., London Branch prior to the announcement of the Acquisition, is no longer required and has been cancelled.

    Citi, as financial adviser to Seplat, is satisfied that the necessary financial resources are available to Seplat to enable it to satisfy in full the cash consideration payable to Scheme Shareholders (and participants in the Eland Share Schemes) under the terms of the Scheme.

    Seplat’s Chief Executive Officer, Austin Avuru, said: “We are delighted to successfully complete the acquisition of Eland, which further enhances Seplat’s footprint in Nigeria and provides opportunities for enhanced scale, diversification and growth. We welcome our new colleagues and Nigerian partners as we look forward to working together in this exciting phase of our development.”

    Meanwhile, Mr. Roger Brown is warming up to take over as the as the chief executive officer from Avuru. Seplat had announced last year that Avuru will be retiring on July 31, this year after 10 years of leading the company.

    Within the period, Avuru grew the company’s oil production from 22,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to 111,368boepd.

    The acquisition of 45 per cent of oil mining lease (OML) 53, post Company’s IPO of 2014, created an opportunity in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to spawn a mid-stream subsidiary, ANOH Gas Processing Company Limited.

    ANOH project is currently progressing what will ultimately be a 300 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) of gas, 22,500 barrel per day (bpd) of condensate and 1,200boepd of LPG processing company. All these could not have been achieved without Mr. Avuru’s leadership skills, personal dedication and hard work, at the head of the company, the document noted.

    The Board had selected Mr. Roger Brown as the successor to Mr. Avuru as the Chief Executive Officer, when Mr. Avuru steps down on 31 July 2020. Mr. Brown joined Seplat in 2013 as the Chief Financial Officer and played a key role in the successful dual listing of the Company in 2014.

    Similarly, since joining the Company, he has played significant roles in various asset acquisitions by the Company, the document noted.

     

  • Access Bank plans CSR projects for youths

    Our Reporter

     

    Access Bank’s Retail Banking Division is planning a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project that will impact  over  90,000 youths across across the country.

    Project L.E.A.D (Leadership, Enterprise, and Academic Development) as it is called is carried out in partnership with Revamp Africa Foundation (formerly Project Revamp Africa), a non-profit organisation focused on youth development with specific emphasis on youth education, leadership and enterprise development.

    The CSR initiative will boost academic and moral excellence, financial literacy, reading culture, personal leadership and infrastructural upgrade amongst secondary school students and over 90  schools across the nation.

    It will also comprise of high impact mentoring sessions, distribution of free educational materials and structural renovation projects in selected schools to enhance a better learning environment for the children.

    Read Also: GTBank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank meet over final dividends

     

    Over 1,000 volunteer employees of the Retail Banking Division will team up with thousands of volunteers of the technical partner, Revamp Africa championed by the community development expert, Kelechi Anyalechi, to impact youths across the nation.

    Access Bank is reputed for carrying out high impact CSR initiatives across various communities across the country and beyond.

    The Employee Volunteering Scheme enables members of staff of the bank to participate in charitable programmes.

  • FirstBank commits N10b loans to education

    By Collins Nweze

     

    FirstBank of Nigeria Limited has within the last one year  supported educational institutions with loans worth N10 billion.

    The support came though its FirstEdu product, an educational solution created to enhance the educational facilities in schools  improve the quality of education across the country.

    FirstEdu loan is targeted at private nursery, primary and secondary schools to assist the schools in achieving their desired growth in the medium and long-term.

    The product provides funding to replace old furniture and equipment, pay  salaries, purchase brand new or fairly-used buses as well as refurbish dilapidated buildings and classroom blocks.

    With this product, school owners/proprietors can stay ahead to make learning easy and conducive for students.

    The product enables the schools to access facilities with no tangible collateral, apart from domiciliation of school fees account with the bank.

    On the other hand, FirstEdu portal is a modular and robust web-based enterprise portal that enables Tertiary educational institutions manage academic, administrative, professional, logistics and payment challenges.

    The product features and benefits include; e-Learning, virtual library and facilitation of exchange programmes with foreign educational institutions; academic & student events/time-table/calendar management; school fees payment via the internet; online information and result checking;interactive community forum between students and teachers.

    It also affords applicants the opportunity of enrolling from the comfort of their homes or any location around the world; no licensing, installation and maintenance cost and plugs avenues for revenue leakages amongst others.

    Read Also: FirstBank educates youths on entrepreneurship

     

    Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Chuma Ezirim, said:  “With FirstEdu, private schools across the various tiers of education in Nigeria; elementary, secondary and tertiary, have the right tool to boost their business to the level they desire.

    ‘’We are pleased to have already disbursed over N10 billion loans to schools in one year and we would continue to support growth in this key sector of our economy.”

    “At FirstBank, we identify with the impact of the educational sector on the socio-economic activities of the country and importantly the lives of everyone. We remain committed to supporting schools as education is the core and root factor at enabling growth of our economy” he concluded.

     

  • Greif Nigeria’s shareholders meet on NSE delisting

    By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

     

    Shareholders of Greif Nigeria Plc are scheduled to meet at their extraordinary general meeting next week in Lagos to consider a proposal for the delisting of the company from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

    Directors of Greif Nigeria had met at the company’s head office in Lagos and decided to call an EGM to consider the sale of the designated company’s properties in Apapa, Lagos and the delisting of the company’s shares from the NSE.

    The EGM is scheduled to hold on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at the company’s Apapa, Lagos office. Shareholders are expected to vote to empower the board to “take such steps or actions and to do all things as may be necessary to give full effect” to the two resolutions on property sale and delisting.

    The board of Greif Nigeria had last April suspended operations of the company as the packaging company continued to wriggle in losses.

    The board had resolved that the company should stop receiving new orders from customers and also stop production for an indefinite period.

    The board stated that it took the decision because the company recorded a loss of more than N260 million in 2018 and the loss had also continued in the first quarter of the 2019 business year.

    According to the board, efforts made to win back key customer and also get price increase from the customers were yet to yield positive result.

    “It had, therefore, been resolved that the company stop receiving new orders from customers and also stop production for an indefinite period,” the company stated in a regulatory filing signed by its Managing Director, Mr David Onabajo.

    Greif Nigeria had suffered a major contraction in its business in 2018 as the packaging company struggled with significant decline in sales.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of Greif Nigeria for the year ended October 31, 2018 showed that sales dropped by 62 per cent from N1.405 billion in 2017 to N534.611 million in 2018. As against modest profit of N77.55 million in 2017, the company posted pre-tax loss of N245.23 million in 2018. After taxes, net loss rose to N262.59 million in 2018 as against net profit of N49.42 million recorded in 2017. Earnings per share consequently declined from N1.16 in 2017 to a loss per share of N6.16 in 2018.

    Greif Nigeria had forewarned investors that the immediate past business year was a very challenging year for the company.

    The company had stated that economic and competitive environment in the steel drum and packaging sector gave rise to a very tough situation for its business, which resulted in the closure of two of its branches during the 2018 financial year.

  • Stockbrokers call for financial market overhaul

    By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

     

    The stockbroking industry has called for an overhaul of the financial market system to attract long-term capital and build a virile domestic capital base.

    Stockbrokers under the aegis of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), in their economic outlook, urged the Federal Government to set up a council, comprising various professional bodies to drive savings as a strategy to encourage investors towards medium and long-term investment in Nigeria.

    In a statement entitled: “The Nigeria Economic Review: Outlook and Recommendations for 2020”, the CIS urged the Federal Government to review entire financial system for enhanced growth and development.

    According to the institute, the Federal Government should review the structure of the entire financial system significantly to raise the utilisation and development of the capital market, especially, fixed income and equity segments to create a balanced and faster growth inclined system.

    The report noted that there was a need to set up an independent council comprising banks, stockbrokers, mortgage institutions, insurance companies, and pension fund administrators and others to effectively coordinate the mobilisation of savings.

    Stockbrokers called on the government to institutionalise the funding framework for capital market literacy in Nigeria by financially empowering organisations engaging in financial literacy.

    The Institute noted that in Nigeria, economic policy was largely discharged by way of continual interventions by the CBN while the Federal Government’s decision to close the country’s land borders also had significant impact on performance indicators.

    In the review, the Institute noted that the money market continued to dominate the Nigerian financial market space with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s interventions in various sectors of the economy.

    “As banks control almost the entire liquidity in the Nigerian financial system, they should support capital market investments, including re-introduction of margin lending with improved regulations.CBN, being the dominant institution that currently provides liquidity support for critical economic sectors, should extend its liquidity support to the capital market, including the equity segment,” CIS stated.

    The institute urged the Federal Government to direct pension funds in Nigeria to look beyond fixed income investments and also invest substantially in the equities market for liquidity and stability purposes.

    According to the report, greater tax incentives should be granted to companies and individuals in accordance with their levels of savings and investments in formal and recognized outlets such as stock markets.

    The report pointed out that current low share prices at the Nigerian stock market provides investors with significant opportunities for capital gain.

    CIS added that demutualisation and insurance sector recapitalisation will provide additional boosts for market recovery.

  • Equities lose N181b in 2020 first decline

    By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

     

    After sustained consecutive positive trading, Nigerian equities suffered their first loss in 2020 on Tuesday as profit-taking transactions shaved off N181 billion from market capitalisation of quoted equities.

    With investors jostling to monetise and lock in capital gains across the sectors, disproportionate sell orders forced most transactions to close at lower prices. There were nearly two decliners for every advancer.

    Nigerian equities had by last Monday amassed N1.35 trillion in capital gains over the eight trading of the year. Most analysts attributed the pullback to activities of investors that wanted to monetise their capital gains.

    Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped from its opening value and this year’s high of N15.287 trillion to close at N15.106 trillion, representing a drop of 1.18 per cent or N181 billion.

    The benchmark index, the All Share Index (ASI) also declined correspondingly by 1.18 per cent to close at 29,283.15 points as against its opening index of 29,633.58 points. The declined moderated the bullish average year-to-date return to 9.1 per cent.

    All sectoral indices closed negative, underlining widespread profit-taking transactions across the sectors. The NSE Insurance Index declined by 2.03 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dipped by 1.65 per cent. The NSE Banking Index depreciated by 1.07 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index lost 0.29 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index slipped by 0.19 per cent.

    Nigerian Breweries led the 22-stock losers’ list with a drop of N4.95 to close at N51.10. MTN Nigeria Communications followed with a drop of N3.40 to close at N124.20. Dangote Cement dropped by N2 to close at N170. United Bank for Africa lost 45 kobo to close at N8.25. Zenith Bank declined by 40 kobo to close at N21.30 while Tourist Company of Nigeria dropped by 35 kobo to close at N3.15 per share.

    On the positive side, Beta Glass led 12 other stocks with a gain of N5.20 to close at N59. Forte Oil rose by 95 kobo to close at N17.85. Flour Mills of Nigeria added 70 kobo to close at N24. C & I Leasing rose by 60 kobo to close at N7.35. Cadbury Nigeria chalked up 50 kobo to close at N10 while Ekocorp garnered 35 kobo to close at N5.20 per share.

    Total turnover rose by 91.5 per cent to 666.78 million shares valued at N6.52 billion in 5,711 deals. Union Diagnostic was the most active stock with a turnover of 340.2 million shares worth N71.44 million. Zenith Bank followed with a turnover of 69.72 million shares valued at N1.51 billion while United Bank for Africa placed third with 38.79 million shares valued at N329.15 million.

    “We anticipate a mixed performance in the interim due to profit taking,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

    Beyond equities, the fixed income market also yesterday traded mostly on the negative as rates continued to drop. Overnight rate dropped by 0.58 per cent to 13.42 per cent. Open Buy Back (OBB) rate dropped by 0.83 per cent to 12.33 per cent.

    Treasury bills also closed negative as selling pressure weighed on the yield curve. Average yields across the curve increased 13 basis points to 9.90 per cent. At the sovereign bond market, average yield increased by 10 basis points to 8.09 per cent.

  • Julius Berger, MTN, Dangote, others make Nigeria’s top 100 companies

    By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

    Julius Berger Nigeria Plc has been ranked in the upper Top 100 Nigerian companies in terms of assets, revenue and profits in fiscal year 2018.

    Alongside MTN Nigeria Communications, Dangote Group and Zenith Bank, the companies were announced as “Nigeria’s Top 100 Companies”; an exclusive club of the country’s corporate elite.

    A survey by influential Business weekly magazine, NEXTMONEY in its December 2019 edition, Julius Berger ranked among the first 21 of the top 100 companies in terms of Assets of over N288.43 billion. In terms of revenue and profits for the period, the publication rated   the company number 16 with N194.62 billion and N6.1 billion to show.

    Read Also: Julius Berger, CCECC, 37 others jostle for 4th Mainland Bridge job

    According to NEXTMONEY, the Top 100 Companies “is a galaxy of Nigeria’s blue chip companies with humongous assets, hefty revenues and princely profits. It is a showcase of publicly-held companies in the country that have posted impressive results after weathering the country’s excruciating economic weather’’.

    It is an album of companies that represent a goldmine in the business world where investors can put their money and reap bountiful harvest in terms of return on investment even as it stressed that this report covered the 2018 accounting year.

    On how the top companies were decided, NEXTMONEY stated that it extracted the relevant data from the audited accounts of the companies listed on the NSE and sorted them from the largest to the smallest and cut off at the 100th.

    Thus, it said from any angle they are viewed, assets revenue and profits, companies falling into the upper 100 group in Nigeria are high performers to be coveted and sought after by serious and discerning investors.

  • High-cap stocks lift Nigerian equities by N112b in opening trades

    By Taofik Salako, Capital Market Editor

    Nigerian equities rallied net capital gains of N112 billion on Monday as the stock market reopened to continuing bargain-hunting for large-cap stocks.

    With profit-taking moderating the breadth of the rally, considerable gains by large-cap stocks in the telecommunications, manufacturing and banking stocks buoyed the market position.

    Aggregate market value of all quoted shares at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose from its opening value of N15.175 trillion to close at N15.287 trillion, indicating net capital gain of N112 billion or 0.74 per cent.

    The All Share Index (ASI)- the common value-based index that tracks all share prices at the NSE, also rose by 0.74 per cent to close at 29,633.58 points as against its opening index of 29,415.39 points. The sustained rally nudged the average year-to-date return for quoted equities to 10.4 per cent.

    Read Also: Nigerian equities rally N1.23tr gains in six days

    With 21 decliners to 16 advancers, the overall market performance was due to gains recorded by MTN Nigeria Communications, UAC of Nigeria, Flour Mills of Nigeria and United Bank for Africa (UBA) among others.

    Most sectoral indices closed negative, underlining the profit-taking transactions across the sectors. The NSE Insurance Index rose by 0.30 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index appreciated by 7.0 per cent. However, the NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 3.17 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 0.70 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index dipped by 0.42 per cent.

    MTN Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N11.60 to close at N127.60. UAC of Nigeria rose by 80 kobo to close at N11.05. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria added 35 kobo to close at N5.65 while Flour Mills of Nigeria and UBA chalked up 30 kobo each to close at N23.30 and N8.70 respectively.

    On the negative side, Presco led the losers with a drop of N4.65 to close at N52.25. BUA Cement dropped by N2 to close at N39. Seplat Petroleum Development Company lost N1.50 to close at N588. Cadbury Nigeria declined by N1.05 to N9.50 while Unilever Nigeria lost N1 to close at N18 per share.

    The momentum of activities also increased as turnover rose by 24 per cent to 348.24 million shares valued at N8.55 billion in 5,377 deals. Access Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 63.69 million shares worth N682.46 million. UBA followed with a turnover of 40.63 million shares worth N354.19 million while Zenith Bank placed third with 39.50 million shares worth N861.15 million.

    “We expect the bullish run to persist as investors continue to show renewed interest in the market,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

  • C & I Leasing’s N3.23b rights issue closes

    THE extended application period for the ongoing N3.23 billion capital raising by C & I Leasing Plc ends today.

    The offer period had been extended by additional 17 days to further encourage shareholders to pick up their rights. Application list for the rights issue had opened on Monday November 18, 2019 and was initially scheduled to close on Friday, December 27, 2019.

    C & I Leasing is seeking to raise N3.23 billion from existing shareholders through a rights issue of 539 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N6 per share. The rights were pre-allotted on the basis of four new ordinary shares of 50 kobo each for every three ordinary shares of 50 kobo each held as at the close of business on Wednesday, September 04, 2019.

    The company would use the net proceeds of the offer to bolster its working capital and increase leasing assets.

    AbraaJ Investment Management Limited (AIML), which had secured approval to convert its $10 million loan in C & I Leasing to equities in the Nigerian leasing company, and thus became a majority shareholder, has indicated that it will not be picking its rights. Renounced rights are usually sold through trading on the NSE or through pro rata allocation to other shareholders that demand for additional shares.

    C & I Leasing had in January 2019 concluded a massive share reconstruction that saw cancellation of 1.479 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, about 79 per cent of the company’s pre-consolidation issued share capital.

    The share capital reconstruction had reduced the leasing company’s outstanding shares from 1.883 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to new total outstanding ordinary shares of 404.25 million ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each. Under the share consolidation, four ordinary shares of 50 kobo each were consolidated into one ordinary share of 50 kobo each.

    The company had stated that the purpose of the reconstruction was to allow the company to have enough unissued shares to accommodate the conversion of the Abraaj loan stock to ordinary shares and to raise additional capital through the capital market for business expansion.

     

     

     

     

     

  • UBA, Stanbic IBTC’s directors meet on dividend

    TWO of Nigeria’s five largest commercial banking groups, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, are scheduled to meet to determine the proportion of final dividend payouts for 2019

    In separate regulatory filing, the banks indicated that their directors will be meeting in the next few weeks for final consideration and approval of the audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019. A major agenda of the board meeting, according to the banks, is also a decision on the final dividend to be proposed for payment to shareholders.

    Directors of UBA are scheduled to meet on Monday, January 27, 2020 while the board of Stanbic IBTC Holdings will meet the following week, February 06, 2020. The boards of the banks are expected to send the approved audited accounts and dividend recommendations to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for the apex bank’s clearance, before onward submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the general investing public.

    Under the listing rules at the NSE, quoted companies are required to submit their annual audited account to the Exchange not later than 90 calendar days after the relevant year end, and published same in at least two national daily newspapers not later than 21 calendar days before the date of the annual general meeting. They are also required to post same on their websites with the web address disclosed in the newspaper publications. Also, an electronic copy of the publication shall be filed with the Exchange on the same day as the publication.

    Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, insurers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year.  The deadline for the submission of annual report for the year ended December 31, 2019 is thus Monday March 30, 2020.

    Most analysts expected the two banks, which had paid interim dividends on their audited half-year results, to announce their results and dividends before the March 30, 2020 deadline.

    UBA, which had paid N6.84 billion or 20 kobo per share as interim dividend to shareholders based on its first half results, was the most active stock last week at the NSE as investors jostled to take positions in the stock.

    Stanbic IBTC Holdings had distributed interim dividend per share of N1 for the first half ended June 30, 2019. Shareholders however took advantage of existing dividend conversion policy to convert the interim dividends ordinary shares of 50 kobo. The company confirmed that shareholders converted their interims dividends to 31.5 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each. The new shares increased the holding company’s total outstanding shares to 10.50 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

    Under a resolution passed at its extraordinary general meeting in August 2016, shareholders of Stanbic IBTC Holdings may choose to receive dividends declared by the company, up to year 2020, either in cash or as new ordinary shares in the company.

    Most analysts expected the two financial groups to declare appreciable final dividends after third quarter earnings showed steady growths in key performance indicators.

    UBA sustained strong growth in key performance indicators in the third quarter as the pan African financial group grew net profit by 32 per cent to N81.6 billion. Key extracts of the interim report and accounts of UBA for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2019 showed significant growths in the top-line and the bottom-line as the commercial banking group pushed its assets base to almost N5 trillion.

    Gross earnings rose by 14.2 per cent to N428.22 billion in September 2019 compared with N374.8 billion recorded in September 2018. Profit before tax grew by 24.2 per cent to N98.2 billion as against N79.1 billion recorded in the same period of 2018. After taxes, net profit increased by 32.3 per cent from N61.69 billion recorded in September 2018 to N81.63 billion in September 2019. With this, the bank’s annualised return on average equity stood at 20.6 per cent. Net operating income had improved by 11.6 per cent to N265.99 billion in September 2019 compared to N238.36 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2018.

    The bank also continued to maintain a strong balance sheet with total assets of N4.96 trillion in September 2019 as against N4.87 trillion recorded in December 2018. Customer deposits also grew to N3.37 trillion. Shareholders’ fund rose by 10.5 per cent to N555.53 billion, reflecting a strong capacity for internal capital generation.