Hello and welcome to Nairametrics’ Corporate News Roundup for the week that ended December 4, 2022.
As always, it was an eventful week for Corporate Nigeria, from Access Holdings getting an operating licence in France to Lazerpay laying off workers.
It’s time to summarise the main company news stories that dominated the headlines during the week. This newsletter is courtesy of Quidax.
Let’s begin…
Access Holdings keeps making moves
Last week, Access Holdings Plc finalised its acquisition of an indirect stake in Sigma Pension Limited. The acquisition followed earlier regulatory approvals from the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and others.
A statement seen by Nairametrics said Access Holdings also merged its former pension subsidiary, First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL), with Sigma Pension to form a formidable pension funds administration.
In a different development, Access Holdings announced that it obtained regulatory approval from French authorities to begin operations in France. Group CEO Herbert Wigwe who disclosed this, said the move is part of the company’s bid to become Africa’s financial gateway to the world.
In light of this development, Access Holdings said it would be establishing a new subsidiary in France called Hydrogen which would specialise in supporting intra-Africa trade. Nairametrics reported that the company would work with development finance institutions to facilitate cross-continent payments.
More deals, including a funding round for Orda
Still on deals news, Nigerian food tech startup, Orda, announced a $3.4 million seed funding round led by Fintech Collective and Quona Capital. This is coming at a time stakeholders have been expressing worries over the declining funding rate in the African startup ecosystem.
A statement seen by Nairametrics explained that Orda plans to use the money to improve its service delivery and help more African restaurants maximize their business operations.
NNPC Limited signed a $1.4 billion funding agreement for its Northern Hydrocarbon Funding Limited. The deal was arranged by United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Standard Chartered Bank and saw participation from sixteen lenders.
The NNPC’s Executive Vice President for Upstream, Adokiye Tombomieye, said the funding will facilitate commitment by the NNPC to sustainably meet today’s energy needs and deliver energy for the future.
FEDA wants a ‘taste’ of Geregu Power
Last week, Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), an impact development arm of the Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank), expressed interest in acquiring some equity stake in Geregu Power Plc.
In a corporate disclosure seen by Nairametrics, Geregu Power Plc noted that discussions to this effect are still ongoing. Recall that the company recently listed 2.5 billion ordinary shares at N100 per share on the Nigerian Exchange.
Accessible car insurance made possible by Tangerine and Coscahris
In an interesting development, Coscharis Motors entered into a strategic partnership with leading insurance company Tangerine Africa, to make car insurance more accessible for Nigerians.
A corporate disclosure seen by Nairametrics explained that Tangerine Africa will offer a fixed rate of 1.75% on auto insurance on all cars purchased from the Cosharis across all its locations.
What more is happening in the startup space?
Jumia is serious about curtailing its losing streak. Last week, Nairametrics reported about the e-commerce firm’s newly-laid-out strategies for a return to profitability.
The strategies, as contained in Jumia’s latest earnings report, entail enhancing business focus, enhancing e-commerce delivery, cost-cutting measures, implementing a diversified monetization model and lastly, focusing more on its fintech subsidiary JumiaPay.
Another Nigerian crypto firm, Lazerpay, announced that it would be laying off some of its workers. The crypto payment startup said its travails are not linked to the FTX crisis but are due to biting economic challenges in the country.
The downsizing became necessary after an attempt by Lazerpay to seal a seed funding round failed as the lead investor pulled out last minute.
NGX shows ‘mercy’
NPF Microfinance Bank Plc obtained approval from the Nigerian Exchange to extend the deadline for its free float compliance till December 2023.
Nairametrics reported that the extension would enable the company to comply with NGX’s free float requirements of 20% issued and fully paid share capital or N20 billion free-float market capitalisation.
In earnings news…
Electric cable maker, Cutix Plc, released its half-year 2022 unaudited financial report which showed that revenue rose by +27% to N4.420 billion from N3.491 billion during the comparable period last year.
Pre-tax profit also hit N546.800 million, indicating a 4% increase from N523.503 million reported in half-year 2021.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated also released its Q3 2022 results, reporting a 2% increase in pre-tax profit of N59.734 billion from N58.351 billion last year.
Interest income for the period under review rose by just 4% to N168.6 billion from N162.4 billion in Q3 2021.
FCMB Group Plc’s gross earnings for the nine months ended September 30 2022, grew by 33.85% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to N200.067 billion from N149.467 billion.
Profit after tax grew by 66.03% to N22.920 billion in 2022 from N13.804 billion in 2021.
A special report by Nairametrics showed that Nigeria’s top consumer goods companies earned a whopping sum of N1.059 trillion worth of revenue in the last nine months of the year 2022, outperforming their earnings in the corresponding period of 2021 of N811.887 billion.
The companies highlighted in the report are Dangote Sugar Plc, Nascon Plc Unilever Plc, Nestle Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, and BUA Foods Plc.
Focus on the appointments
Vitafoam Nigeria Plc announced the appointment of Zakari Mohammed Sada as a non-executive director of the company.
The company expressed confidence that Mr Mohammed would bring along his wealth of experience in corporate planning and strategy, administration, and financial and regulatory advisory.
The Board of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc also announced the appointments of Mallam Ballama Manu and Mrs Oluwatoyin Odutayo as Independent Non-Executive Directors. The appointments took effect on November 21st, 2022.
A statement seen by Nairametrics described the appointees as seasoned professionals with decades of experience spanning different sectors. See their profiles below.
Thank you for reading and do visit our homepage for more interesting business stories and analysis.
