What Nigerian Companies Were Up to Last Week By @Ugodre

Nairametrics| Roundup of Company News from Nigeria for the week ended April 8, 2017.

1. Access Bank is in the final year of its 5-year strategic plan, which was introduced by the CEO, Herbert Wigwe. The bank is now planning to focus on three main priorities. First is to cement its position as a dominant corporate bank. Second is to establish itself as a formidable retail bank and lastly leveraging digital technology and innovation to create value for its customers while unlocking new revenue streams. Nothing new here as this is basically what every bank aims to achieve. The bank however declared a dividend pay-out of about N18 billion to its shareholders. Profit after tax for the year was N65.8 billion. See link

2. The former big strong and reliable bank, Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) Plc is concluding arrangements to float a rights issue of N50 billion in the second quarter of 2017. The bank wants to raise Tier 1 capital “to support the bank’s efforts to accelerate business growth and reposition itself as a leading commercial bank in Nigeria.” The bank also claimed, funding will “also allow Union Bank to maintain compliance with regulatory capital requirements.” This suggest the bank is below capital adequacy requirements. The bank reported a profit before tax of N15.3 billion compared to N14.3 billion the year before.

RelatedStories

Debtors incur N8.4 trillion in interests payments to Nigerian banks in 2024

April 25, 2025

Which Nigerian banks pay their staff the most and the least in 2024 

April 22, 2025

3. In apparent compliance with Nigeria’s local content policy, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) revealed that it has hired some indigenous service firms, including Dormanlong, to work on its Bonga facility, FPSO (the floating production, storage and offloading vessel), undergoing turnaround maintenance (TAM). Link

4. Perennial loss makers, Japaul Oil and Maritime Services Plc has blamed its latest string of losses on the devaluation of the naira. The company reported a loss after tax of N22.5 billion recorded for the year ended December 31, 2016. This company has a negative equity of about N19 billion and has reported losses every year for the last 5 years except for 2013 when it posted a modest profit of just N38.8 million. Their auditors PFT has classified the company as technically insolvent. Japaul hoodwinked a lot of unsuspecting Nigerians into its IPO about 10 years ago, leading to millions of retail investor money being wiped out. Shocking that the founder of this company Paul Jegede, whom the company is aptly named after still runs it as group Chairman.   Link

5. NIPCO Investments Limited, a subsidiary of NIPCO Plc, has completed the takeover of Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. The company acquired 60 per cent majority equity stake of ExxonMobil Oil Corporation in Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, in a deal announced last year. The deal is worth $301million and is regarded as the biggest downstream sector deal on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in recent years.  Under the deal, ExxonMobil transferred its total shareholding of 216.36 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to Nipco Investments Limited for the consideration of $301 million. Mobil share price rose sharply at the end of the week and closed at N360 per share. Rumours suggest, NIPCO may move for a Mandatory Takeover of the remaining shares of the company. The company will be renamed 11 Plc while retaining the Mobil brand.

6. Linkage Assurance Plc introduced what we thought was an interesting new motor third party insurance policy.  In this policy, the insured’s vehicle is guaranteed a maximum of N250,000 cover. Premium for this policy is N15,000 and targets vehicle owners who can’t afford a comprehensive motor insurance policy. Currently, a comprehensive motor insurance policy is valued at about 4% of the value of the car. At N15,000 the implied value of the car is about N375,000. Link

7. Tier 1 bank, The United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) has said it plans to extend its presence in Africa from 19 countries, Nigeria inclusive, to 25 countries by 2024. The Head, Investor Relations, UBA, Mr. Abiola Rasaq, who disclosed this during a media briefing in Lagos at the weekend, said the bank has developed a cost-effective strategy to achieve this plan. He explained that the bank’s operating licence in some of the African countries allows it to expand into some neighbouring countries without raising fresh capital. UBA is presently in Chad, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Congo Brazzaville, Mozambique, Cameroon, Tanzania and Congo DRC. The bank’s plans also align with the Chairman, Tony Elumelu’s Africapitalism mantra. More

8.The Managing Director of PayPorte, Mr Bassey Eyo said that the online store, Payporte.com has suspended Payment on Delivery as part of its payment options. The company explained it took this decision in line with the new Central Bank of Nigeria cashless policy. A more plausible reason was due to the brutal murder of a delivery staff of Jumia who was killed after delivering goods to customers in Port Harcourt. The company thus based its decision also on the increasing security challenges posed by POD option and the need to improve customers’ satisfaction.

9. This is one story that excited me last week. Euro Global Food and Distilleries Limited, a member of Sona Group of Companies announced that it has completed a critical phase of its N3billion Ethanol plant. The plant which is 90 per cent at completion stage will enable the company boost its local production. It said this was part of its backward integration drive. With the completion of the plant, the company will rely less on imported raw materials and will also bid to sell the excess production to other Nigerian distillery firms. The company’s products include Seaking Schnapps, Blue Lagoon Dry Gin, Power Bitters etc. Link

10.  The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) last week revealed that it had paid $489.226 million, about N151.6 billion, in various forms of taxes to the Federal, States and Local Governments in 2016. The company released its fact and figures last week where it broke down its results as well as listed all the taxes paid in 2016. Interesting part of the report was confirmation that the total amount paid as taxes declined by 80.37 per cent or $2.0 billion when compared to total taxes of $2.5 billion, about N772.5 billion, paid to the three tiers of government in 2015. Fact and Figures

11.   The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has downgraded Guinness Nigeria Plc from its special pricing status category following the depreciation in its share price. Stocks are included in the “high priced stocks” category if their share price is consistently above N100 per share. High priced stocks require about 10,000 shares to trade before the share price changes as against the 50,000 shares for stocks priced below N100. Forte Oil, Lafarge Africa, Guinness Nigeria and Seven-Up Bottling Company have been on the watch-list for removal from the since their share price fell below N100 for well over three months.

12.  Nigeria’s leading pension fund, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, revealed that it has over 1.5 million Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs), with assets under management more than N1.88 trillion. That’s about 30% of the N6 trillion valued as total pensions funds AUM. Link

13.  In one of the funniest stories last week, Toyota Nigeria Limited urged vehicle owners and drivers not to patronise fake mechanics and unauthorised auto technicians to save cost due to economic recession. The Chairman, TNL, Mr. Michael Ade-Ojo, himself gave this warning in Lagos at the 2016 Toyota Awards. Link

14.  UBA is apparently not the only bank looking to expand its tentacles across Africa. Group Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, last week revealed that the bank plans to open a new business in Tanzania. UBA has a Tanzanian subsidiary.  

15.  Mr Agbaje also revealed the secret of the bank’s success. It declared that the decision of the bank’s management to diversify into retail business over five years ago, has become the building block for its phenomenal growth in recent times. Source

16.  GT Bank also revealed that its 737 payment and service delivery platform helped it record over N1 trillion in transactions. They only introduced the service a year ago.

17.  The FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange Plc has approved the listing of Mixta Real Estate Plc N30 billion bond for trading on its platform. It says, the listing of Mixtra bonds will mark the first real estate bond to be listed on the FMDQ this year. Link

18.   Multi-choice, owners of DSTV announced 5% increase in subscriptions across board last week. As expected, Nigerians did not take it likely. The House Representatives also reacted negatively to the announcement and moved to enforce the ‘pay as you go’ option on Multichoice Satellite television. The House in plenary mandated the committees on Ethics, Values and National Orientation, Telecommunications to interface with regulators such as the NCC, CPC and Multichoice to address these concerns and report back within 8weeks for further legislative action. DSTV usually announced price increases around April of every year but resisted an increase last year. Here is a look back at past price increases by DSTV.

19.  Wema Bank Chief Finance Officer Tunde Mabawonku revealed plans by the bank to raise N20 billion via a debt issue by end of second quarter or early third quarter. The company’s capital ratios had declined to about 11% from 15% after it repaid a loan of N50 billion obtained from the CBN. He said the debt raise will boost capital ratios to 14 percent. He claims they need about N8 billion to meet 14% and would raise further equity in 2018. Wema Bank reported a modest profit after tax of N2.5 billion compared to N2.2 billion a year earlier. Check Reuters

20. BUA group plans to increase its market share in the Cement Industry by an additional 10 million metric tonnes by 2018. At the company’s yearly customers’ forum and award held in Abuja, its Executive Chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, said the firm would double its production capacity through an expansion of its production plants. More on Bua

1. Last week was a slightly better week for Nigerian stocks. The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization appreciated by 0.90% to close the week at 25,746.52 and N8.909 trillion respectively. Apart from the NSE Banking Index, all other Indices finished higher during the week  while the NSE ASeM Index closed flat. Get weekly report

Nairametrics| Roundup of Company News from Nigeria for the week ended March 25, 2017.

Our Founder, Ugo Obi-Chukwu sent out his weekly Company News Roundup on twitter late Sunday evening.  You can follow his twitter feed below to view his news and reviews.

Hello Everyone…this is @Nairametrics roundup of all the major company news for the week ended Marc 25th. Thread starts here!

— Ugodre (@ugodre) March 26, 2017

Also signup to our Newsletter of you want this in your Inbox

Nairametrics| Roundup of Company News from Nigeria for the week ended March 18, 2017.

1. Etisalat was easily the most intriguing story this week. On Sunday, the CBN and NCC called a crisis resolution meeting between the banks and Etisalat. Following the meeting, Etisalat’s creditors agreed to take receivership off the table. But the terms of the debt still have to be renegotiated.

2. A few banks declared their exposure to Etisalat, Fidelity Bank has exposure of around N17.5 billion ($56 million) to Etisalat Nigeria, the Nigerian lender’s investor relation’s team said on Thursday.

3. GT Bank confirmed that it has $138 million exposure to Etisalat or N42 billion. On Wednesday. GT’s chief executive, Segun Agbaje said Etisalat’s loan would be restructured.

4. Banks are opposed to converting the dollar part of Etisalat Nigeria loan to naira. According to United Capital Data, the dollar part of the loan in the sector is about 65%, which is about $235 million.

5. Segun Agbaje also announced that GT Bank would not refinance its Eurobond due next year because it does not see opportunities to grow its dollar loan book. Due to currency devaluation, the bank expects naira loans to grow 10%, down from 15.8% last year.

6. Malabu Oil Scandal seems here to stay a long time. Things got further complicated on Sunday when the former Attorney General of the Federation Mohammed Adoke wrote an open letter titled ‘Settlement of dispute over ownership/operation of OPL 245, between the Federal Government of Nigeria, Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.’ to his successor, Mr. Abubakar Malami. In the letter, Adoke maintains that the deal was sanctioned by three successive Presidents – Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Umaru Yar’Adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan – so how can it be illegal he asks? He also asked that if it was so illegal, why have they not distanced themselves from the deal. Mr. Adoke is currently in embroiled in an open court case against the EFCC, where he has been accused of his role in the fraud case.

7. In case you ever wanted to know the Nigeria’s top employers, Jobberman’s 2016 Best 100 Companies to Work For Survey, has rated General Electric, Airtel and Ericsson as the top three companies to work for in Nigeria. The banking sector locked down three spots in the top 10 for the first time, with Guaranty Trust Bank Plc., First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Union Bank Plc. taking the sixth, seventh and ninth spots, respectively compared to 56th, not on the list, and 33rd positions, respectively in the previous year. However, from its number one spot in 2015, Konga dropped to number 10 in 2016.

8. INTELS acquired the Liebherr crane, which is worth N1.83 billion ($6 million), also thought to be the largest in Africa. Reputed to be one of the largest ports handling equipment in the world, the crane weighs 600-tonne. According to the Head of Administration and General Services Chibuisi Onyebueke, the crane sits on 104 tyres, and is capable of lifting cargoes as heavy as 208 tons with a 17-metre boom outreach.

9. The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) released its report on the 2012 Dana Crash on Monday. The crash was as a result of on double engine failure, as well as the failure of the pilot to take the appropriate decision to land on the nearest airfield. AIB Commissioner Mr. Akin Olateru said investigators found that the aircraft’s engine number one lost power 17 minutes into the flight from Abuja, and thereafter on final approach, the second engine also lost power. The aircraft and failed to respond to throttle movement on demand for increased power to sustain the aircraft in its flight configuration. The Dana Boeing MD-83 aircraft, with registration 5N-RAM, on its way to Lagos from Abuja, had crashed into some houses at Iju-Ishaga (Lagos), killing all 153 people on board and six others on the ground.

10. Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) plans a $25 investment to reduce gas flaring and air pollution in the Niger Delta, according to internal NLNG documents seen by New Telegraph reporters. The plan is to expand NLNG’s liquefaction and purification facilities – which currently run on 6 trains. To achieve this, NLNG is building two additional trains (7 and 8) to add to their existing trains, it would cost $25 billion to build the new trains. The $25 billion investment would be made based on shareholding percent – NNPC 49%, Shell Gas 25.6%, Total LNG Nigeria Limited 15%, and Eni – 10.4%.

11. NNPC had quite a scandalous week. First, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said that NNPC owed an accumulated debt (2000 – 2014) of $15.8 billion to the Federation Account. The money in question was given to the NNPC by the NLNG. The costly transaction process involved the NLNG paying its dividend to the NNPC, who was then to pay the money into the Federation Account. But as with all things, NNPC failed to do so, instead used its money to run its operations.

12. A NAPIMS’s 2016 budget performance presentation to the senate committee on upstream petroleum, NNPC was reported to have spent $9 million on staff transfers and $2 million on vehicles maintenance. However, NNPC denied these claims. It released a statement on Tuesday, saying the money in question “consisted of appropriated items on pension fund, retirement benefit, and staff transfers/redeployment.It also said that the $2million allegedly spent on vehicles maintenance, comprised budget items, which included light vehicles maintenance, operation, and fuelling.

13. Capital Oil, MRS, and NNPC. Two indigenous downstream petroleum firms and the NNPC are accused of illegal oil transactions. The issue is that about 130 million litres of petrol imported by the NNPC downstream (worth $9 million), is illegally stored in two depots, one belonging to Capital Oil and the other MRS. Already, an investigation committee set up by the NNPC Retail, a downstream subsidiary of the NNPC, has recommended the sack of three officials, whose actions or inactions may have led to the fraud.

14. GT Bank announced that the second edition of its Food and Drink fair is to take place on 1^st of May 2017. The 2-day event will treat attendees to enthralling gastronomic tours across a wide variety of exciting cuisines and delicacies while offering small businesses in the Nigerian food industry a free and vibrant platform to connect with a wider segment of their target markets as well as experts in their business fields. The 2016 debut of the consumer-focused event had over 90 exhibitors from the food sector and attracted over 25,000 guests over the 2-day period

15. Logistics company, INTELS Nigeria Limited announced last week that it has acquired a 600-tonne Liebherr crane worth $6 million (about N1.83 billion). The crane which has been deployed, is reputed to be one of the largest port handling equipment in the world and can handle loads of up to 208 tonnes. By the way, a tonne equals 1000 kilograms.

16. SystemSpecs, the owners of the Remita (software used for facilitation of the TSA) revealed last week that volume of transaction on its networks grew to $30 billion in 2016. That’s equivalent of about a third of Nigeria’s GDP. The company also revealed last week that it has given financial support of N3 million to three technology startups. Each of the companies received N1 million to accelerate their venture.

17. Remember the NLNG pipeline that blew up some weeks back. Well, they claimed the facility belongs to a third party but also houses their own pipeline. They revealed that work was ongoing to restore it and that it could be back on stream as early as this week.

18. Work seems to be ongoing at Dangote Refineries. Last week Man Diesel and Turbo announced that it signed a deal with Dangote Group to deliver two compressor trains to Dangote Oil Refining Company. They did not reveal the cost of the refinery only saying that it was in double-digit million-dollar order volume. The highly efficient machinery trains consist of an axial compressor driven by a steam turbine with about 30 MW power. The company also revealed that the trains will come into operation for the refinery process of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC), thereby supporting the production of fuel. It will be ready in 2018.

19. Guinness Nigeria Plc confirmed last week that it would be raising N39.7 billion in new equity funds from shareholders. Equity will be raised via a rights issue as they will be offering 684.495 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to shareholders at a discounted (to market value as at last week) price of N58 per share. The rights’ shares will be pre-allotted on the basis of five new ordinary shares for every 11 ordinary shares held as at March 15, 2017. The rights’ issue price of N58 per share represents a discount of 17 per cent from Guinness Nigeria’s last traded price of N70 per share yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Guinness needs the money to repay its debt which is currently valued at about N33 billion. It’s parent company Diageo owns about N9 billion of that debt. Diageo’s share of the company could rise by 8% by the time the equity is raised. It currently owns about 55% equity in Guinness and planned to increase it to 75% last year when the share price was still N175.

20. Rumours that Air Peace is owned by the immediate past first lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan (AKA Mama Peace) as doused last week. Chairman of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema, dismissed insinuations that a former First Lady had an interest in the carrier.Air Peace is arguable one of the best local airlines in Nigeria. The Chairman was awarded “Aviation Man of the Year 2016” by ATQnews and Akwaaba African Travel Market held in Port Harcourt.

Nairametrics| Roundup of Company News from Nigeria for the week ended March 11, 2017.

Etisalat Debt Issue

Etisalat has been in a running battle with a consortium of banks over a $1.72 billion (about N541.8 billion) loan obtained in 2015 which the Telecom firm had defaulted on. They have been unable to reach an agreement, leading to the banks threatening to take over the company. This spurred both the NCC and CBN to intervene on Friday as they feared this could affect about 23 million subscribers of Etisalat. At the meeting, all parties agreed to take a possible takeover out of the table while they negotiate what the repayment terms will be. Access Bank revealed Etisalat owed it about N40 billion. IHS also revealed that Etisalat has missed out on payments of about $8 million in lease rentals for Masts.

Etisalat blamed its inability to fulfil its obligation to the banks on the current economic recession in Nigeria.
The banks on the other hand said their attempt to recover the loan was fueled by the pressure from the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, and its demand to immediately cut down on the rate of their non-performing loans.

Discos are rejecting power 

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru said that, the electricity distributing companies often reject power loads that are too high, and that other transmission line constraints, means that 4,500MW of electricity is left at the national grid undistributed.

According to him, the country has enough gas to generate about 4,800MW currently and attain 6,000MW by the second quarter of 2017, based on NNPC’s gas supply plan. Discos on the other hand, claimed that the more power they generate the more losses they are likely to incur.

TA Associates acquired a minority Stake in Interswitch

TA Associates a global private equity firm recently acquired minority equity interest in Interswitch. The deal (amount not disclosed) will see TA Associates take up a stake in the company by buying some of the shares owned by Helios Investment Partners, majority shareholders in Interswitch. Ajit Nedungadi, a Managing Partner at TA Associates who will also join the Interswitch Board of Directors.

TA Associates is ranked among the top 50 private equity firms in the world, and it has raised $24 billion in capital so far.

GE partners Tony Elumelu Foundation on Lagos Garage

General Electric (GE) and the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) have announced a partnership that would allow up to 25 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs to participate in a dedicated 4- week advanced manufacturing training programme every year at GE’s Lagos Garage – a hub for advanced manufacturing-based innovation, strategy development, idea generation and collaboration.

The partnership results from the mutual interest of both organizations to foster economic growth and empowerment in Nigeria by building a skilled workforce and driving entrepreneurship development in the country.

Nigeria to get additional N1.2 MW of Power from coal

A private firm, Eta-Zuma Group West Africa Limited, announced that it had secured an investment outlay of about $6 billion which it will use to generate electricity supply by 1,200 Megawatts.

It plans to generate the power through coal, which is often considered expensive. It mines the coal from Kogi State. The company also said it had secured a license from NERC to generate 400MW from gas. The gas project will take 30 months to complete.

Another revelation on the Malabu Oil scandal

The never-ending story of the Malabu Oil deal had a new twist last week, after new information surfaced regarding how the money was moved. Prosecutors citing investigative reports claimed two payments of $400m was wired to the Nigerian Government.

From there, they withdrew about half of the money converted it into cash via a BDC for onward bribe to government officials. Tens of millions (according to the report) was also wired to buy a private jet and armoured cars in the US, per documents compiled by the prosecutors.

IEI gets approval to raise equity

Shareholders of International Energy Insurance Plc have approved a capital raise of about N9 billion for the Insurance Company.

This was approved at the recently concluded 42^nd AGM in Kano. The shareholders also approved a capital raise of about N4 billion at the 41^st AGM last year. IEI is yet to raise a single kobo.

Reps want Oando and Conoil to pay up
The PPPMC revealed last week that Oando Plc and Conoil owed the NNPC about N4.5 billion and N3.1 billion respectively for products lifted from NNPC.

The information was revealed to the House of Representatives committee investigating the huge debts owed by to PPMC (a subsidiary of the NNPC).

The committee demanded that Oando and Conoil pay at least 50% each and wondered why penalties were not spelt out for defaults. Oil marketers are expected to make payments two weeks after lifting products from the PPMC.

The NLNG has disappointed for the first time in 10 years

The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) paid a total of $365.1 million to the government as dividend for the year ended December 2016. This was 65.8% lower than the $1.04 billion paid in 2015 and the lowest in about a decade.

The Nigerian government owns about 49% of NLNG while Shell Gas (25.6 per cent), Total (15 per cent) and Eni (10.4 per cent). In 2008 the NLNG paid $2.6bn, $848.6m in 2009, and $1.4bn in 2010 as dividends. Payments rose to $2.5bn in 2011 and $2.7bn in 2012 before sliding to $1.2bn in 2013 and $1.3bn in 2014.

Vitafoam is re-strategizing

Vitafoam Plc held its AGM last week in Lagos after declaring a group loss after tax of about N32 million in 2016.

The company Chairman, Dr. Bamidele Makanjuola revealed that the company will launch a new finance strategy, strengthen its operations through innovative products and reposition its foreign operations further for sustainable profitability as part of a broad growth plan for the 2017 business year.

Shell Shuts Bonga Field – Possible Impacts
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, announced last week that it was shutting down its production from Bonga field to enable it commence turnaround maintenance.

Shell says the field was shut down on March 4, 2017, and is expected to resume after the exercise next month. Nigeria has a target of producing about 2.2mbpd of crude and could be significantly impacted if the shutdown lasts longer than anticipated.

Nigeria is expected to lose about N3.45 billion daily for the period the plant will be shutdown.

Oando has divested from captive power

Oando Gas and Power, OGP, was on the news again last week after the CEO confirmed that they had divested their interest in captive power enabling them focus on gas infrastructure.

After releasing one of the largest ever losses recorded by a Nigerian company in 2014, the company has divested from several its businesses including power and its downstream assets.

However, the company sees gas to homes as a viable investment. Its Gaslink franchise serves over 160 industrial and commercial customers across the Greater Lagos area.

Total revealed how much of a big deal the Egina deep-water field is for Nigeria

Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited declared bigly that its crude oil production from its Egina deep-water field would add 200,000 barrel per day of oil to Nigeria’s production volumes in 2018.

This represents about 10 per cent of the Nigeria’s total output. It’s interesting to note that Total embarked on this project at a time when oil prices were low and the PIB is yet to be passed. Probably explains how big this project is for Total.

The project is located some 130 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria at water depths of more than 1,500 meters.

This Security Company is taking advantage of the Abuja airport closure

It seems the closure of the Abuja airport is an opportunity for some Nigerian Business to make some quick money. Take the case of Halogen Security Company Limited.

The company revealed last week that it will be providing air travel options for intending travelers into Abuja through Minna, while also rendering executive chauffer and escort services from Kaduna Airport to Abuja.

The Travel Security deal is offered to both individual and corporate bodies. They even have a premium, executive and classic offering.

Lekoil announced yet another acquisition

LEKOIL has acquired a participating interest of 17.14% in OPL 310 from Afren Investments Oil and Gas (AIOGNL). LEKOIL through its subsidiary, Mayfair Assets and Trust (Mayfair), acquired a participating interest of 17.14% in OPL 310 from Afren Investments Oil and Gas (AIOGNL), a subsidiary of Afren.

Prior to this, Afren held a 40% participating interest in OPL 310. As consideration for the 17.14% interest transfer, LEKOIL funded the first $50m towards drilling and exploration well and sidetrack that resulted in the significant “Ogo” discovery – one of the largest in the world. It was further revealed that LEKOIL has spent over $120m to date on OPL 310.

Ministerial Consent was applied for the 17.14% interest in 2013; and the Department of Petroleum Resources completed the customary due diligence process in April 2014.

Aiteo Group announced it has tripled oil production in OML 29

The Aiteo Group revealed last week that it had achieved a peak production of 90,000 barrels per day in one year after its acquisition of Oil Mining Lease 29. The company said it acquired the OML 29 in September, 2015 when Shell Petroleum Development Company fully exited the facility.

Average production was 23,000bpd at the time it acquired to asset. Aiteo claimed it achieved this feat by leveraging the diversity and skills of its workforce as a dynamic international energy conglomerate.

Nigeria Breweries launched a new brewery plant

Nigerian Breweries last week, inaugurated its N11 billion brewery plant located in Ota Ogun State. The Ota brewery was acquired by the Heineken Group in 2011 from Sona Breweries Limited, makers of Life Beer and other brands. It was later sold to NB Plc the same year.

Some big results from some big banks

The trip of GTB, Zenith and Access Bank released their 2016 FY results last week.

GTB led the pack with a record N133 billion profit after tax, 36% higher than the year before. Zenith Bank reported a profit after tax of N129.6 billion about 22% higher than the year before. Access Bank reported a profit after tax of N71.4 billion about 13% up compared to the year before.

Most Nigerian banks gained big from a revaluation of the naira has all their foreign denominated assets were revalued upwards. GTB for example earned about N87.2 billion from devaluation alone.

That’s it for last week. Hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Do feel free to send us an email info@nairametrics.com. We love feedbacks. 

Nairametrics| Here is my roundup and commentary of all the major company related news in Nigeria last week. Last week we had news from KFC, Lekki Gardens, AMCON, Ibru’s, MTN, Spectranet, Universal Steel etc. You can subscribe to Nairametrics Newsletter at the bottom of this post to get this via email.

Week ended February 25th 2017

1. A mortgage bank, Jubilee-Life Mortgage Bank Limited last week unveiled an initiative known as ‘rent-to-own your shop’ for business owners and market women. The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ultra-Modern Market project was developed by Lias Freight Agencies Limited and includes 336 lock up shops and one banking hall and it’s located in Ijaiye-Ojokoro. Rent to own schemes were made popular by the Lagos State government and was used for residential properties. This is the first we have seen for shops. By the way, looked up the Freight Agencies, the project developer and it appears they are into clearing and forwarding.
2.  Last week, Lagosians woke up to learn that all KFC outlets in Lagos will shut down operations from Monday, February 20, 2017.  They claimed low patronage and high cost of power was the reason. Thus, KFC Outlets in popular areas such as Ilupeju, Sabo, Ikeja, Ogba and other parts of Lagos metropolis will effectively close with residents unable to have their favourite meal at the outlets. They will only leave KFC shops located in shopping malls. So, if you crave KFC, then visit the ones located in shopping malls
3. Last week, Telco’s in Nigeria revealed plans to ban of Skype, Whatsapp and other OTP’s because they are taking business away from them. A manager at one of the Telco’s said that had lost about “N100tn between 2012 and 2017.” We don’t know how they came up with that number, maybe they planned to write N100 billion. Anyway…Nigerians reacted angrily to the news, reminding Telco’s that Skype and Whatsapp calls are not free as they incur data charges.
4. Goodie Ibru last week announced his retirement as the Chairman of Ikeja Hotel Ltd after 32 years of service as founding Chairman. Mr Ibru said he took the decision in the overall interest of the company and the larger Ibru family passing the torch to the younger generation Ibru’s. Just last December a Federal High Court in Abuja confirmed him as Chairman. Looking at the records, under his watch, the company has been consistently late in filing annual reports, despite Ibru being a former vice chair of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. 2014 results show the company made a loss after tax of 2.55 billion naira. Mr Ibru also has a pending case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The stock is currently at a price of 1.78 naira per share.
5. Lagos State and ARM have partnered to create 500 coding centres in public and private schools across the state. The project called Code Lagos is targeting one million Lagosians. The programme is to be launched in April this year with about 300 of which ARM providing and equipping 15 of the centres.
6.  Last week, MTN Nigeria partnered “world renowned” solar architect, Lumos to launch mobile solar electricity systems for the benefit of families and businesses in Nigeria. Wondering what MTN has got to do with this? Well, it’s based on the way Lumos sells these units. To purchase one, you make a onetime payment, following which the solar panels are installed in your house. The mobile indoor unit is then kept in the house and then you pay via your mobile airtime to access electricity. Could this be a threat to Discos?
7.  Med-View Airlines Plc listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with so much fanfare last month. Of course, the listing wasn’t for fun. Companies list either to raise equity or debt, give shareholders options to sell down their equity during IPOs and give future shareholders an opportunity to enter and exit securities at will. Med-View’s reason is to raise equity and sell down equity. The company announced plans to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in the second quarter of the year to raise new equity funds to expand its operations. Managing Director, Med-View Airlines, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, said the company would in the next three months float its IPO to raise additional funds and allow more investors to buy into the company. According to him, the airline would by April expand its operations to Francophone countries within the West African states.
8. 50-year-old Ikeja Based steel company, Universal Steel was acquired by “a new generation of private investors” last week. Investment One Financial Services was the sole financial adviser and arranger for the deal. They brought together a group of private investors to complete the acquisition following the decision of the core investors to sell the company. At its peak, Universal Steel had an installed capacity of 120,000 metric tonnes per annum at its 10 hectares- production facility located within the Ikeja Industrial Scheme, in Ogba, Lagos. We understand Universal Steel will be wound down by the previous shareholders
9. In a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), FCMB notified of its reorganization in its management that current MD/CEO Ladi Balogun, will be stepping down (more like stepping up) after being at the helm for ten years. He is stepping down because of the CBN policy which limits bank MDs to a tenure of ten years. He will be replaced by Adam Nuru, Executive Director (ED) of development. However, in keeping it in the family, will remain as Group CEO of FCMB Group effective March 20, 2017 and will be expected to continue calling the shots.
10. There was bad news last week for the literary community, following the decision of Chevron Nigeria Limited, to withdraw its sponsorship of one of the annual literary prizes of the Association of Nigerian Authors. Chevron blamed the decision on the current economic recession in the country. Chevron Nigeria Limited had been funding the literary prize, since 2001.
11. German Investment Group, Cube Commodities Company announced that it was setting aside a total sum of €300m (N97.5bn) to finance small-scale industrialists in Nigeria. The Chief Executive Officer, CUBE Commodities Company, Dr. Dean Nguyen, gave the figure on Monday in Abuja during a meeting with members of the National Association of Small-Scale Industrialists. The partnership, according to him, will enable the group to provide the N97.5bn at a low interest rate for industrial development, technology transfer and market development for NASSI members’ products in Europe and Asia. CUBE will rely on the Nigerian development banks such as the Bank of Industry, Nigeria Export-Import Bank and Bank of Agriculture to guarantee the loans before they are disbursed.
12. The Lagos State Government filed a six-count criminal charge against the Managing Director of Lekki Gardens Estate Limited, Mr. Richard Nyong over the collapse of a five-storey building on Kushenla Road in Ikate Elegushi in Lagos State, which killed at least 35 persons. Lagos State cited the contravention of planning permit regulations as a basis for the charge. The state government also charged eight other persons comprising contractors and promoters of Lekki Gardens for allegedly failing to obtain a planning permit in contravention of the State Physical Planning, Urban and Regional Development Act. Other than the managing director of Lekki Gardens Estate Limited, the other accused are GT Rich Ltd, HC Insight Solutions Ltd, Taiwo Odofin, Omolabake Mortune, Maruis Agwu, Sola Olumofe and Omotilewa Joseph.
13. Coronation Merchant Bank Limited last week said it reported a profit before tax (PBT) of N5.3 billion in 2016, representing an increase of 128% over last 2015 performance of N2.3 billion. The bank also said its net interest income also increased by 86%, from N4.3 billion in 2015, to N8 billion in the year under review. They also said that their non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stood at zero per cent. Coronation Merchant Bank used to be Associated Discount House Limited and obtained a merchant banking license and an FX dealing license in 2015.
14. Paint maker, Chemstar Paints Industries Nigeria Limited reported last week that its turnover grew by “double digits” in 2016. This was despite the economic recession and harsh business environment in the country. “We have begun to look inwards to seek for alternatives that we can use to replace some of the imported raw materials. This has helped us greatly and coupled with the fact that we have very loyal customers that stood by us throughout the year.” The Group Managing Director (GMD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Mr. Emmanuel Awode He also mentioned that about 60% of raw materials used for paints are imported. Mr Awode did not forget to play the forex card. He complained about the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) $1 billion foreign exchange allocation to manufacturers, stressing that the demand for forex by manufacturers by far outweighs what the apex bank had disbursed.
15. Exxon Mobil laid off additional 89 workers last week, part of a series of retrenchments that started in the company last year. The source revealed that 60 regular workers and 29 contract workers were affected in the latest retrenchment, involving mainly workers at the company’s Qua Iboe Terminal. According to NAN, the retrenched workers had been paid their terminal benefits running into millions of naira.
16. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) reported last week that Discos owed it about N107 billion as at December 2016. This amount is arrears for energy wheeled to the 11 Distribution Companies (Discos) and other electricity industry operators. Between January and December 2016, the Discos paid to TCN N28.9 billion from the total invoices of N90.8 billion leaving an outstanding N61.9 billion.
17. Domestic carrier, Air Peace announced last week that it had taken delivery of its 12th aircraft. The aircraft is a 114-capacity Boeing 737-500.While the likes of Aero and Arik seem to be facing major challenges, the likes of Med-View and Air Peace seem to be growing from strength to strength.
18. Money transfer company, Paga announced last week that it has gone into partnership with MoneyTrans, a leading Money Transfer company and TerraPay to launch cross-border remittances from Spain to mobile wallets in Nigeria’ said Nigerians in Spain can now send money to any mobile phone number in Nigeria through its platform, by visiting the nearest MoneyTrans store
19. The NCC las week announced that Spectranet 4G LTE was the Internet Service Provider (ISP) with the highest number of subscribers in the country. According to the NCC, Spectranet is leading with subscriber base of 193,892 among 14 other Internet Service Providers in Nigeria. We couldn’t find the data on the NCC’s website to substantiate this claim.
20. It looks like The Silverbird Group has reached some form of truce with AMCON and its receiver managers Messrs. M.A. Banire & Associate. The Vice President of the group, Guy Murray Bruce was in the papers last week, showing praises at AMCON and Messrs Banire for helping resolve its challenges in a fair, patriotic and businesslike manner. He however did not mention if they have finished repaying their loans or if they reached an agreement that perhaps included some form of loan restructuring or refinancing.
21. The Elizade Group have finally joined vehicle manufacturing in Nigeria. The announced that they will be into the production of Chinese brand, JAC. They are the authorised distributor of JAC Motors in Nigeria and are targeting to produce 15,000 vehicles annually, including, passenger cars, SUVs and light trucks. The plant, which is currently operating on a single shift is a multi-brand plant would also assemble the Toyota brand in Nigeria. the Managing Director, Elizade Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ademola Ade-Ojo said that the plant would have commenced operations earlier than now but for their inability to source foreign exchange for production. Mr Ojo also explained that the reason why they are yet to move production into CKD was because of the challenges of sourcing raw materials locally. According to him “Moving our production to CKD depends on how government ensures that the other factors key into ensuring that CKD strives. CKD cannot strive unless you have a minimum of about 30 per cent locally sourced material. “If you can’t source 30 per cent local content, there is no point in doing CKD. It depends on how government structures the auto market and the industry.”
22. Africa’s largest retail Supermarket chain, Shoprite Holdings released its 2016 full year results on Tuesday, showing headline earnings per share rose 15.5% to R45. Profits were also up 19% to R3.9 billion or N93.5 billion as sales from within and outside Africa strengthened during the year. Revenues were also up to R71.29 billion or N1.7 trillion. Revenues from Nigeria jumped up by 60% and 155% in Angola. Shoprite doesn’t reveal its numbers from Nigeria beyond these percentages. The company also claims local currency cash and short-term deposits of R1.3 billion about N31 billion are held in Angola and Nigeria. Shoprite also claims it has 3 million followers on social media, with more than 1.2 million of them in Nigeria. This is helping them extend expertise in digital marketing.Shoprite also revealed it now buys, depending on the time of year, almost 40% of its vegetable requirements from local growers in Nigeria
23. Barely six months after patriarch of the Ibru clan and billionaire, Michael Ibru passed on, peace seems to have eluded the Ibru family. Multiple court cases have been filed by his children over assets he left behind. Leading one camp of the family, is Oboden Ibru. Oboden Ibru is a former executive director of Oceanic Bank (now Ecobank) and Aero contractors (which has been taken over by AMCON). He has asked a federal high court to appoint an auditor to verify his late father’s assets and divide them equally among all 16 children. On the other side of the argument is Janet Ibru, who in a counter-suit wants beneficiaries of the estate to be those who scale through the results of a DNA test. She also seeks a refund of her expenses on their father in the last year of his life. While all these law suits fly around, various parts of the Ibru empire continue to suffer. Aero contractors are under AMCON control. Ikeja Hotels has made several losses for the last few years. Sun International, the operators of Federal Palace Hotel are also thought to have pulled out of their partnership with the Ibru Family. For a family with a long history of enterprise and industry, everything seems to be crumbling around them. It appears from a distance that the younger generation seem not to be ready to uphold the Ibru legacy.
24. The wave of mergers and acquisitions seem to be blowing in the insurance industry again. Liberty holdings, one of South Africa’s biggest financial service firms, has taken a stake in a Nigerian insurance firm. While Liberty has not mentioned the insurance firm, our sources suggest the firm could be Unic Insurance. Unic Insurance was established by prominent business man and one time head of the Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan in 1965. The company, started as a composite insurance firm, but has focused on health insurance since the 2007 insurance consolidation exercise. The deal, worth $12 million dollars, will see Liberty take a 75% stake in the firm. Audited results for the company in 2014, show the company having a loss after tax of 567 million naira. Unic is valued at about $1.9 billion as its share price remains stuck at 50kobo per share for years. Market value is different from purchase consideration upon acquisition
25. . The frequent appeals, and persuasion from the Federal Government to foreign airlines flying international routes may be paying of some dividends as at last Ethiopian Airlines has agreed to route flight through Kaduna airport with daily frequency with its Dream Liner aircraft. The Traffic and Sales Manager of the Airline Mrs. Firiehiwot Mekonnen disclosed this to journalists in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika and representatives of foreign airlines operating in the country.

Follow us on twitter @Nairametrics and @Ugodre for regular updates.

Nairametrics| Here is my roundup and commentary of all the major company related news in Nigeria last week. This week we have news from NNPC, Arik, AMCON, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Wakanow, Dangote etc. You can subscribe to Nairametrics Newsletter on the bottom of this post.

Week ended February 18th 2017

1. The controversy surrounding the takeover of Arik Air continued last week after the new management claimed it inherited “nearly an empty shell of a carrier” with only 10 out of the 28 aircraft in its fleet functional. KPMG was appointed to audit the company. Arik also suspended its Lagos-London and Lagos-Johannesburg routes. To fix the rot in the company, they say they will need another N10billion. Without which the airline will not be able to resume full and uninterrupted flight operations to its regular routes across the country and beyond. Are we talking another bailout here?
2. In another AMCON related news last week, the bad asset bank announced it had sold the fourth largest equity stake in Paints and Coatings Manufacturers Nigeria (PCMN) Plc to Bizfeat Ventures Limited. It transferred its 7.4 per cent equity stake in PCMN to Bizfeat Ventures through a negotiated cross deal at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), where PCMN is quoted. The block divestment involved transfer of a total of 58.66 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each held by AMCON to Bizfeat Ventures at a negotiated price of N1.05 per share. The divestment price represents a premium of 61.54 per cent on PCMN’s market price of 65 kobo and five per cent above one-year highest price of N1. It appears this is a likely short to medium term strategy for AMCON as it tries to recover hundreds of billions of Naira likely lost in Nigerian companies it took over following the banking crises of 2011 and 2012.
3. It’s award season. Two brands from the stable of Chi Limited –Chivita and Hollandia, were named Best Brand Equity Awards 2016 in Nigeria. The award, which was recently organised by Kantar Millward Brown, a leading global research agency. Chivita and Hollandia were honoured for their Outstanding Brand Equity and market leadership in their respective categories. Chivita won the Best Brand Equity Award in the Juices and Soft Drinks Category, while Hollandia emerged winner of the Best Brand Equity Award in the Dairy category.
4. The Managing Director of Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL), Rizwan Kadri disclosed last week that the company helped export about 35 million metric tonnes of products in year 2016, compared to 35million tonnes in 2015, an increase of 12.9%. The company claimed they could lose about a N3.36 billion to the closure of the Abuja airport.
5. Nigerian based online travel company, Wakanow has announced plans to formally launch commercial operations in the UK as part of its efforts for global expansion and in a bid to consolidate its foray into Europe. The company recently launched DestinationsAfrica, a global booking platform that aggregates the best of African packaged holidays from over 23 African countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Tanzania. Wakanow, also has operations in Ghana and Dubai. According to Industry sources, Wakanow (started in 2008) has cornered about 10% of Nigeria’s Travel and Tours market said to be worth about N100 billion as at 2015 11. FG To Save N15bn from 50% Air Travels Discount
6. Dana Air, signed a deal with The Federal Government last week offering 50% discount on official air travel tickets. The Government said the deal will save it about N15 billion annually. Dana also announced that it was partnering with Meridiana Fly, an Italian carrier, to deepen its operations in Nigerian and Ghana. In an interview, Dana Air spokesman, Kingsley Ezenwa, said the deal was driven by the introduction of a Boeing 767 – 300 aircraft and superior on – time performance rate. We are yet to see full details of the deal and do not know if it is just for this year alone.
7. Forte Oil listed its N9bn bond on FMDQ. The listing, which is the first corporate debt listing in 2017, and will be traded on the OTC exchange market. Forte Oil raised the bond successfully late last year and is part of a planned N50 billion bond issuance lined up by the company.
8. Dangote Group announced last week that it was planning to launch a rice mill. Dangote Group subsidiary Dangote Rice Ltd will launch a pilot project starting with 500 hectares of farmland by Gonroyo Dam, Nigeria’s second-largest dam, located in the northern state of Sokoto. The multi-million-dollar project will be expanded to cover a land area of 25,000 hectares across three sites in northern Nigeria by the end of the year. It’s Dangote and as usual, we expect to see the visible and invincible hand of the government in all of this.
9. Nigeria Breweries announced last week that it reviewed prices of its drinks thrice last year. They claimed it was because of the harsh economic conditions. The company also maintained that its outlook for 2017 is still negative. Nigeria Breweries, like Guinness have been experiencing softer sales of their premium brands as Nigerians now prefer cheaper alcohol.
10. NNPC announced last week that it had increased Petroleum Products Importation to ensure that the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), Automotive Gas Oil (diesel), and Dual Purpose Kerosene, remained ahead of demand. They claimed to have imported about six additional cargoes for a national petrol sufficiency of over 32 days; immediate importation of three additional AGO cargoes before the end of this month; and an order for 250 trucks per day loading of AGO and DPK from the three refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri. Each PMS cargo currently imported by the NNPC is about 37,000 tonnes. Sources reveal NNPC is the sole supplier of products in Nigeria today as most marketers have abandoned imports due forex issues. NNPC also reported a loss of N197 billion for the year ended December 2016. N152 billion of the losses was from its CHQ.
11. Last week, the NNPC also said it would convert the $144 million Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol foreign exchange (forex) intervention to Automative Gas Oil (AGO) or diesel. The it claimed is to obtain an AGO forex intervention to marketers as well as Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Associations (DAPPMAN) from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
12. Newly listed MED-VIEW Airline announced plans to expand operations to other operations to Francophone countries within West Africa. The Managing Director Alhaji Muneer Bankole explained this in an interview in Lagos. Bankole said the airline would expand its operations to Dakar (Senegal), Conakry (Guinea) and Abidjan (Cote D’Ivoire) in the next two months, noting that the airline has already began Lomé (Togo) route. Bankole said that beginning from the next quarter of 2017, Med-View would begin the Lagos-Dubai route, which has been in pipeline for over two years while the Baltimore, Washington DC in United States is also on the card. These announcements are purely targeted at potential investors who they are targeting in their upcoming IPO.
13. Access Bank divested from Stanbic IBTC Pensions last week. Stanbic IBTC Pensions has a net asset of about N17.8 billion. Access Bank’s stake in the net assets is about N3.5 billion. ARM opined that the value of the sales could be as high as N7 billion. I wrote a recent analysis of 4 bank stocks including Access Bank. I’m projecting that the share price could hit N7.5 cum div.
14. In a related development, foreign investors, Allan Gray from South Africa informed Bloomberg last week that they had taken an increased position in Tier 1 banks, Access Bank and Zenith Bank. They claimed despite the capital controls imposed by the CBN they still to see “a lot of value in Nigerian banks.” According to them, despite the bad debts hanging over the sector, most banks, particularly tier 1 banks are likely to survive.
15. Still on banking related news, Fitch issued new ratings for about 10 Nigerian banks. According to Fitch, 4 of the banks, Zenith, GTB, Access Bank and Diamond Bank all saw their outlook revised to negative in line with Nigeria’s outlook which was similarly revised to negative (B+) last week.
16. United Capital released its 2016 full year results and as expected impressed investors by declaring mouthwatering dividends. The company reported a profit after tax of N2.7 billion representing a 176% increase compared to the year before. Dividend was also impressively 50 kobo per share representing a 42% increase compared to 35 kobo per share paid a year earlier.
17. UACN Properties Plc aka UPDC issued a profit warning to its shareholders and investors at large on Thursday. A profit warning in layman’s English refers to when companies inform investors that they are expecting to report poor earnings. Poor earnings could be a profit that is significantly lower than the year before or at worst an outright loss. According to the company’s press release it was expecting to report “materially lower earnings” in 2016 due to losses incurred in certain projects and “impairments of investment” in one of their “joint venture projects”. The company also blamed rising financial cost, foreign exchange losses and negative performance of the hotel asset as the reason. UPDC owns the Golden Tulip hotel in Festac. The company reported a pre-tax profit of N132 million in the first 9 months of 2016. It reported a loss of N110 million in the corresponding period in 2015.
18. Pharma-Deko Plc asked a Federal High Court in Lagos to wind-up Guinness Nigeria Plc over a debt of N175,699, 317.99 it claims it is being owed. It appears Pharmadeko entered a canning agreement with Guinness Nigeria Plc which the latter eventually breached. They did not provide reasons why the contract was breached. Upon breaching the contractual agreement, the matter went into arbitration and it was resolved that Guinness pays a sum of N175.6 million to Phamadeko. Pharmadeko is apparently now requesting that Guinness be liquidated because they are yet to receive the money. Interestingly, Guinness did not disclose this matter in its interim report for the period ended December 2016. Guinness shot back last week claiming the money was a drop in the bucket when compared to their revenue and net assets. Guinness has a market value of N91.7 billion.
19. Mobil Producing Nigeria‎ Unlimited announced last week that the discovery on its Owowo oil field in the Niger Delta is projected to hold over one billion barrels of crude oil reserves. The company further said its Erha North Phase II is delivering an additional 65,000 b/d of crude to Nigeria. The cost savings to government of the project, which started five months earlier was $400 million under budget, while $2 billion local investment is projected for goods and services. Not bad news considering how critical oil is to Nigeria’s export earnings.
20. In another AMCON takeover, Odengene Air-Shuttle Services Limited (OAS), an aviation company was shut down and taken over by AMCON. The takeover was facilitated by a court order. Sources informed me last week that AMCON pasted court orders all over the premises of the company in Ikeja. Most helicopter service providers have been hard hit in the last couple of years, following the drop-in oil prices. They rely on the upstream oil companies to boost sales. Most of the oil majors have since cut down on budget, affecting their revenues.
21. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said last Thursday that the Federal Government was funding its Digital Switchover from analogue transmission with the N34bn realised from the sale of 2.6GHz bandwidth spectrum to MTN Nigeria. MTN secured the bandwidth in June last year. The deadline for the DSO has been shifted two times previously.
22. The Otakikpo Marginal field in OML 11, supervised by the Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), owned by Green Energy International Ltd will commence continuous full production and evacuation of about 5000 barrels per day from the field soon. Lekoil is a technical and financial partner to the project and is expected to acquire about 40% of Green Energy International Ltd

That’s it for the week. What did I miss? Drop a comment or feedback on the comment section. Have a great week ahead.