Business News

Ellah Lakes Plc lists fresh 1.8 billion shares on the NSE

Ellah Lakes PLC, a leading Agribusiness company, earlier today listed an additional 1.880 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Published

1 year ago

June 17, 2019

Ronald Adamolekun

Ellah Lakes PLC, a leading Agribusiness company, earlier today listed an additional 1.880 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

According to a statement signed by Elizabeth Ekpo, representative of the NSE’s Head of Listings Regulations Department, the additional 1.880 billion shares were issued to the shareholders of Telluria Limited which was recently acquired by Ellah Lakes Plc.

“Dealing Members are hereby notified that additional 1,880,000,000 ordinary shares of Ellah Lakes Plc (Ellah Lakes or the Company) were listed on the Daily Official List of The Nigerian Stock Exchange today, 17 June 2019.

“The additional shares listed arose from the 1,880,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each issued to the shareholders of Telluria Limited, as consideration for the acquisition of the entire issued shares of Telluria Limited by Ellah Lakes.”

Backstory: Recall that late last week, Nairametrics had reported the acquisition of Telluria Limited by Ellah Lakes Plc. The hundred percent acquisition was carried out with the hope of enabling Ellah Lakes Plc to broaden its business by venturing into diverse fields such as oil palm cultivation, production, and processing as well as its derivative products. Prior to this time, the company had only focused solely on fish farming/processing.

Breakdown of the listing: In addition to Ellah Lakes‘ existing ordinary shares of 120 million, the newly listed shares of 1.88 billion bring the company’s total issued and fully paid up shares to 2 billion ordinary shares.

The deal is expected to return Ellah Lakes to the path of profitability after the company recorded a Loss After Tax of N10.788 million for the financial year ended 31st July 2018.

Details of Expansion Plans: According to Ellah Lake‘s Managing Director, Chuka Mordi, who spoke to CNBC Africa following the Facts Behind the Listing, the company has an aggressive growth target to meet in the next 18 to 24 months.

“We are quite certain we can meet these aggressive growth targets. We’ve bought into the growth story of agric business and agric sector in Nigeria. We are very much encouraged by the governments of Edo State, Delta State and their respective governors and CBN policies, which have been very useful in this particular sector we are in.

“We have a target of, over the next 18 months, 10,000 hectares. We intend to establish an oil mill and then go on to refining…so the plan is to go on from low-value end of crude palm oil to the high-value end of processed palm oil.”

Ronald Adamolekun

Ronald Adamolekun is a creative writer with proficiency in journalism, financial reporting, financial analysis and imaginative writing. However, his core competency lies in fiction and short story writing as well as feature writing. He is a graduate of English and Literature from Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria.

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Coronavirus

Covid-19: Russia applies to WHO for emergency use tag for its vaccine

Russia has submitted applications to the World Health Organization for approval of its COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V.

Published

5 mins ago

October 28, 2020

Chike Olisah

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is one of the developers of the Sputnik V, has submitted applications to the World Health Organization (WHO) for an Emergency Use Listing and prequalification of the coronavirus vaccine.

The acceptance of the Covid-19 vaccine by the UN health agency could help allay concerns over its safety and quality.

This was disclosed by Russia’s sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday, October 27, 2020.

Russia was the first country to grant regulatory approval for a novel coronavirus vaccine and did so before large-scale trials were complete, stirring concerns among scientists and doctors about the safety and efficacy of the shot, especially from the western countries.

An Emergency Use Listing (EUL) is meant to make a vaccine available globally faster, while a WHO prequalification is a global quality tag that ensures vaccines are safe and effective.

The Chief Executive Officer of RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev, in a statement, pointed out that the procedures would allow Sputnik V to be included in the list of medical products that meet leading quality, safety and efficacy standards.

In July, Dmitriev had said that Russia aimed to produce 30 million doses in 2020, a goal that was this month dubbed impossible by Russia’s Industry Minister, Denis Manturov, who said a maximum of 2.3 million doses would be made.

The vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Research Institute and marketed by RDIF, is based on a platform of human adenoviral vectors.

What you should know

Nairametrics had earlier reported that President Vladimir Putin announced the approval of the Sputnik V, as the first Covid-19 vaccine to be registered in the world. The approval, which was announced even before the completion of the phase 3 trials, had elicited safety concerns from scientists.

ENDSARS

#EndSARS: Army denies shooting at Lekki protesters, says Lagos asked for military

The Nigerian Army has once again denied it fired gunshots at protesters who were gathered at the Lekki toll plaza.

Published

14 mins ago

October 28, 2020

William Ukpe

#EndSARS: Nigerian Army set to commence Exercise Crocodile Smile VI

The Nigerian Army has stated that the alleged massacre of protesters at Lekki Toll Plaza is untrue, unfounded, and aimed at causing anarchy in the country and that their presence was requested by the Lagos State Government to restore normalcy.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Acting Deputy Director, 81 Division Army Public Relations, Major Osoba Olaniyi, on Tuesday evening, as the world draws attention to the Lekki shootings last week.

In the statement, the Army said: “The attention of Headquarters 81 Division Nigerian Army has been drawn to a viral video on social media in which it was alleged that civilian protesters were massacred by soldiers at Lekki Toll Plaza.

“This allegation is untrue, unfounded and aimed at causing anarchy in the country. At no time did soldiers of the Nigerian Army open fire on any civilian.

The Army said that the 81st Division never got involved in the #EndSARS protests. However, Lagos State called the Army after a 24-hour curfew was imposed due to reports of Police stations being burnt.

“From the onset of the ENDSARS protest, there was no time personnel of 81 Division Nigerian Army Lagos were involved. However, the decision to call in the military was taken by the Lagos State Government (LASG) after a 24 hours curfew was imposed.

“This was as a result of the violence which led to several police stations being burnt, policemen killed, suspects in police custody released and weapons carted away.

“The situation was fast degenerating into anarchy. It was at this point that LASG requested for the military to intervene in order to restore normalcy. The intervention of the military followed all laid down procedures for Internal Security operations and all the soldiers involved acted within the confines of the Rules of Engagement (ROE) for Internal Security operations,” the statement read.

The Army insisted that they did not shoot any civilian and that there is glaring and convincing evidence to attest to this fact. They maintained that the allegations of shootings is the “hand work of mischief makers who will stop at nothing to tarnish the image of the Nigerian Army.”

What you should know

Nairametrics reported last week that several social media accounts had revealed that peaceful protesters were allegedly being shot at by the military at the Lekki toll holdout. The Nigerian Army, however, denied deploying soldiers to attack #EndSARS protesters who assembled there.

The Lagos State Government ordered an investigation into the Lekki Toll Plaza shooting that was allegedly done by some men of the Nigerian Army on Tuesday evening. Babajide Sanwo-Olu had also stated that Lagos State would not burn on his watch, as he tried to calm things down after hoodlums wreaked havoc post-Lekki shootings, and announced that the Judicial panel set up by the state would include the incident.

Nairametrics earlier reported that Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had insisted that there were only two confirmed deaths during the shooting incident that happened a week ago at the Lekki Tollgate.

Coronavirus

COVID-19 Update in Nigeria

On the 27th of October 2020, 113 new confirmed cases and 3 deaths were recorded in Nigeria

Published

7 hours ago

October 28, 2020

Samuel Oyekanmi

The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record significant increases as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 62,224 confirmed cases.

On the 27th of October 2020, 113 new confirmed cases and 3 deaths were recorded in Nigeria, having carried out a total daily test of 2,326 samples across the country.

To date, 62,224 cases have been confirmed, 57,916 cases have been discharged and 1,135 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 614,480 tests have been carried out as of October 27th, 2020 compared to 612,154 tests a day earlier.

COVID-19 Case Updates- 27th October 2020,

Total Number of Cases – 62,224
Total Number Discharged – 57,916
Total Deaths – 1,1135
Total Tests Carried out – 614,480

According to the NCDC, the 113 new cases were reported from 12 states- Lagos (51), FCT (15), Plateau (11), Kaduna (8), Oyo (8), Rivers (8), Ogun (4), Edo (2), Imo (2), Kwara (2), Delta (1), Kano (1).

Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 20,935, followed by Abuja (6,008), Plateau (3,614), Oyo (3,433), Rivers (2,781), Edo (2,654), Kaduna (2,625), Ogun (2,014), Delta (1,813), Kano (1,743), Ondo (1,666), Enugu (1,314), Kwara (1,069), Ebonyi (1,049), Katsina (952), Osun (923), Abia (898), Gombe (883). Borno (745), and Bauchi (710).

Imo State has recorded 616 cases, Benue (486), Nasarawa (479), Bayelsa (403), Ekiti (332), Jigawa (325), Akwa Ibom (295), Anambra (277), Niger (274), Adamawa (257), Sokoto (165), Taraba (140), Kebbi (93), Cross River (87), Yobe (82), Zamfara (79), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.

Lock Down and Curfew

In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.

The movement restriction, which was extended by another two-weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.

On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.

On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.