HENATES

At Africa's two NSEs, the All shares index moved apace but in opposite directions today March 31. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE At the Nigerian stock exchange it was a question of 0.07% easing to 25516.34 despite pressure upwards from the manufacturing sector where many gainers pushed the industrial index up by 4.36% to 1596.51. Price drops recorded in the insurance, consumer goods and banking segments of the market had driven their respectively indices down and so with weighty premium index gaining 0.06%, the very marginal drop in ASI was inevitable. In all there were 19 gainers and 17 losers with the top 8 % gainers with above 4% and they were dominated by manufacturing companies, many with recently released 2016 results. Top gainer in both Naira and % was cement manufacturer, La Farge Africa ul 10.23% or by N3.99 per share accompanied by 46 deals for 278,736 units. Three other manufacturers followed on the % gain scale: Honeywell Flour (5% up); Dangote sugar (4.99%); and B...

Are you interested in investing in Chase Bank of Kenya to perhaps get into or consolidate your position in the East African banking scene, then exoress your interest before or by Friday Aoril 21, 2017. According to the Central Bank of Kenya Chase Bank is currently in receivership under the joint watchful eyes of the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation and CBK. According to a notice from the CBK yesterday, March 30; Chase bank is under receivership because of the following circumstances: 1) The existence of unsafe /unsound conditions to transact business that threaten the interest of the bank; 2) Likelihood of failure to meet financial obligations; 3) Violation of certain provisions of the law/regulation. Existence of substantially insufficient capital in Chase bank. Chase Bank, says had been reopened through combined intervention by the KDIC and CBK on April 27 2016  with reduced activities and Kenya's KCB group as manager. Though these conditions exist, adds the CBK, in the view o...

The financial intermediaries allowed to mediate and deal in retail foreign exchange for small scale demand, Bureaux de change, are to be flooded with more foreign exchange by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from next Monday. According to CBN's Ag. director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, the apex bank is to offer $10,000 to each Bureau de change weekly from next Monday. This will be offered in two tranches of $5000 dollars each on Tuesdays and Thursdays at rate to be announced by the CBN on Monday. Consequently, registered Bureau de change operators are expected to fund their accounts with the CBN adequately on Mondays and Wednesdays. This week the CBN had driven rate for the Bureau de change and at over the counter sales at banking halls to N360 to the dollar by pumping more dollars into both markets at lower margins for itself. It then insisted that at this retail level the rate offered to the public should not exceed N360 to the dollar. Banks were also warned not to...

Left to core business alone especially as influenced by higher production cost in a receding economy, Unilever Nigeria had no way to escape end 2016 with lower profits but it not only escaped, it more than doubled 2015 profit. The secret lever that did the trick came in four different forms: Hands on grip on overheads; profit from sale of consumables; lower cost of funds and higher finance income. According to the figures released recently, Unilever's 17.8% increase in core business revenue to N69777.1m was wiped out almost immediately by 29.6% leap in cost of producing the goods sold to N49481m. Hence, inspire of the double digit revenue growth, gross profit shrunk by 3.57% to N20296m. In response, the first lever Unilever Nigeria successfully leaned on was good hands on that resulted not only in 16% drop in marketing and administration cost to N11,464.1m but also in absorbable 10.8% increase in selling and distribution expenses to N3151.1m. Then as partial icing on this, Other in...

It was almost like it was too early yesterday to expect volume crash after Monday's leap in both African NSEs and so, it finally occurred today March 30. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange volume of shares dealt in crashed by 54.4% to 352.0m units from yesterday's more cautious decline but gainers had quite a field day. Day high volume was Continental Re's 58.886m units sold in just 11 deals while gaining third highest 4.72% per share. The gainers field day made trading bullish though. There were 24 gainers compared to only 9 losers and what's more only two of the 9 had drops above 4% compared to four such gainers. Normally it is the measure in Naira terms that impacts more indices since all are weighted to equity capitalisation. Here the difference was even more clear as too Naira drop was Cement Company of Northern Nigeria's N0.23 per share. On the other hand, top Naira gain was Mobil Oil's N5.01 per share followed by N3 per share gained b...

Yesterday March 29 Nigeria's first savibgs bond issyed by the Federal government was formaally listed on the Nigerian stock exchange. The bond represents the first in series savings bonds planned to be issued monthly with two year tenor. The series 1 quoted yesterday was issued to investing public between March13 and 17 this year and it grossed N2067.96m. The listing on the NSE now opens a window through which any one who invested money can sell holding or buy new one as it becomes necessary since not everyone may be inclined to wait to 2019 to redeem their investment. Series one was issued at a yearly interest rate of 13.01% which is payable quarterly. Being a savings bond targeting the retail end of the market, investors can invest as low as N5000 and multiples of N1000 from then on subject to a maximum of N50m per investor. Series 2 is on schedule to be issued by the Debt Management office (DMO) between April 3 and 7 this year. It will then be subsequently quoted on the NSE like...

Unexpected developments pushed activities in both African NSEs up yesterday and so, naturally, today was expected to come up with great crashes but it didnt. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange rare offload in Niger Insurance had pepped traded volume up a lot yesterday but today, there was only manageable 19% drop in volume to 771.658m units. The gap was more or less filled by three equities with fairly major offloads as well led by 14 deals in Custodian & Allied Insurance for 284.538m units. Yet another insurance company recorded 22 deals for 250.712m units and that was Continental Re. However, the third company was not an insurance one but from the banking sector where in Diamond bank 127.276m units were sold in 5th placed 117 deals. Between the three equities, they were thus responsible for 49.6% of the day's volume; sure not comparable to Niger Insurance 79% previously but a good prop. Otherwise, the mood in the market was low key when compared to Tuesda...

NIGERIA: GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC. Proposed:     30kobo per share. Qualification:  12/4/2017 Reg. Closure: 13-19/4/2017 AGM:                31/5/2017 Venue:       Muson centre, Lagos. Payment;        1/6/2017 UNiLEVER NIGERIA: Proposed:   10 kobo per share Payment:    12/5 /2017 Reg closure:  17-21/4/2017 AGM date:   Not stated  AGM venue: Not stated KENYA: I & M HOLDINGS : Final dividend:  3.5 Ksh per share Reg. Closure:,5/5/2017 Payment:       25/5/2017 AGM date:      Unstated. JUBILEE HOLDINGS: Final dividend:  7.5 Ksh per share. Reg closure:      22/5/2017 Payment:          11/7/2017 Bonus:      1:10 subject to approval BRITAM HOLDINGS: Final:        0.30 Ksh per share Reg closure:    9/5/2017 Payment:        6/6/2017 NAIROBI STOCK EXCHANGE Final:         0.27 Ksh per share Reg closure:   26/5/2017 Payment:        15/7/2017 SCBK Ltd Final:   14 Ksh per share Reg closure:  25/4/2017 Payment:       26/5/2017 FAHARI IREIT Final:    0.5 Ksh per share Reg closure:   31/3/2017 Payment:   ...

At the two African NSEs today March 28, much was unexpected. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange the most unexpected development was that the Equity Trust Fund segment came alive especially price as 4 and a drop was recorded. All of them too with rare one deal each although only the one in Lotus Half Equity was for any substantial volume (10,000 units). All others were for 5 units each. Top gain was by Vetiva S&P devoted to sovereign bond as it closed 6.61% up followed by Vetiva Industrial, up 5.43%. The rest gained or lost less than 1% on opening price. Equally unexpected was the offload in rarely traded Niger Insurance listed in the insurance sector of the main board. A total of 724.3m shares were offloaded in Niger Insurance and taken up in only two deals thus contributing 79% of the day's 916.26m volume; most likely the highest for months. No other equity came close because trailing it was Diamond bank's 100 deals for about 29.412m units followed by ...

NIGERIA: UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE: MD RESIGNS Unity Capital Assurance PLC has announced the resignation of its managing director/CEO Mr Olatunji Patrick Oluyemi. According to a notice signed by the company secretary, Halima Wushishi the resignation took effect from March 23. 2017. In his place, the Executive director Operations, Mr Babatunde Oshadiya has been appointed acting managing director/CEO until a substantive one is appointed. No reasons were given for the resignation. INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES: NEW CHAIRMAN AND COO. Following the retirement of Otunba Michael Daramola as the chairman of the board of directors of International Breweries PLC with effect from March 21, a new chairman and Chief operating officer have been appointed The new chairman is Mr Sunday Akubtoye, so says company secretary/general counsel, Muyiwa Ayojimi. He holds Bsc sociology from the University of Ibadan, is a member of association of certified and chartered accountants (AC...

MRS OIL PLC  NIGERIA: Proposed:     173 Kobo per  Qualification:  23/6/2017 Reg. closure:   26-30/6/2017 Payment:        26/7/2017 AGM:               25/7/ 2017 Venue: Federal Palace Hotel, V/I. STANBIC IBTC    NIGERIA: Proposed:    5kobo per  Reg. closure: 4/4/2017 Payment: 3 working days after AGM. AGM date:   To be advised. Venue:          To be advised. UBA PLC     NIGERIA: Proposed:      55 kobo per share Reg. closure:    3/4/2017 AGM:                  7/4/2017 Payment:           10/4/2017 AGM venue: Eko Hotel & suites V/ STANDARD CHARTERED BANK KENYA. Proposed:   14 Ksh per share. Interim paid:  6Ksh per share. Total:           20 Ksh per share  Reg. closure:  25/4/2017 Payment:        26/5/2017 AGM:               25/5/2017 Venue: Safari Park Hotel Nairobi. HF GROUP PLC  KENYA  Proposed:  0.5 Ksh per share. Qualification:   5/5/2017 AGM:                 21/4/2017 Venue: Kenyatta International Convention Centre. Payment date:   Unstated.

At Africa's two NSEs today March 27, mood more or less reversed  leaving McNichols and Zenith to perform feats at the Nigerian SE and Nairobi with slow start even in the bond market. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE At the Nigerian stock exchange most indicators with McNichols performing rare feat of moving the ASEM index up while Zenith heralded 62.3% rise in volume to 561,481,055 units. After weeks of. closing firm with no activity in the emerging market, the ASEM index closed today 0.11% at 1194.88 as a single deal was recorded in McNichols for 4,420,525 units at N1.33 per share, up 3.10%. There were no other activities in the emerging market for the day. Zenith on the other hand, recorded offload of 52.9m shares taken up in 4th placed 210 deals to almost singly account for the strong recovery in volume. There were other major contributors though to the volume growth led by second placed 37.9m units sold in Fidelity bank in 5th placed 196 deals. Also 5 others chipped in above 10m units e...

The financial year to December 30 2016 may well turn out to one totally unforgettable one for Total Nigeria PLC. According to the annual report for the year released recently, virtually everything fell in place throughout the year and total Nigeria cruised home with 213.3% jump in profit before tax to N20 353.1m. First to fall in place was 32% increase in cost of sale to N241,850.7m while generating 39.9% growth in associated revenue to N290,952.5m. This led to near doubling of gross profit to N49,101.8m as base foundation for overall full year profit. Total Nigeria built in this foundation so well by limiting selling and distribution expenses growth to only 0.99% to N4715.8m and equally succeeding less remarkably with administration cost which at 5.42% up did threaten the gross profit foundation. Hence even as finance charges dropped by 52.4% to N851.9m; as finance income dropped by higher 86.5% to N273.6m and N9058.5m other expenses not incurred in 2016 surfaced;  the leap in profit ...

The bears and bulls were clearly dominant at the Nigerian and Nairobi stock exchanges in week ended Friday March 24. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE At the Nigerian stock exchange bears running scared were more active and so 35 listed equities recorded price drops within the week compared to only 16 gainers. The losers were led by Seplat petroleum which lost N38.72 per share within the week. It was trailed from afar by Guinness Nigeria which closed down by N6.50 per share and Forte Oil which lost N2.70 per share. In all, 8 equities lost grounds with N1 and above. The list includes heavyweight Dangote cement which lost N1 per and others like Unilever and 7up(down by N1.7 per share each); Total Nigeria, down N1.65 and UACN which lost N1.09 per share. Naturally because the bears were more active within the week, only four equities gained above N1 each. The pack was led by Nestlé Nigeria with a total gain of N17.99 per share followed by Mobil oil with N17.25 per share gain; La Farge A...

Cadbury Nigeria manufactures yummy things; those things at least children eat, drink or lick and cant help licking tongue or fingers but it was not yummy for the company in 2016. The sweet taste of the year vanished when cost of goods sold grew by 22.4% to N23119m while the value in Naira terms increased only 7.74% to N29978.4m. Of course Cadbury was still to  profit on this direct transaction of N6869.4m but when compared to N8930m in 2015, the drop came to 23.2%. To recover from that through income from other sources and drastic reduction in non-direct costs proved very difficult. Sure there was 187.8% rise in income from sale of by products to N61.3m and true too management did a good job by decreasing selling and distribution expenses by 0.45% to N5595.7m and growing administration cost by only 7.81% to 2058.9m, it was not good enough. Thus Cadbury Nigeria found itself recording N732.9m operating loss compared to N1420.6m profit in 2015. Meanwhile, liquidity was getting tighter due...

On Friday, March 24 it was clearly down beat and up beat at the Nigerian stock exchange and the Nairobi stock exchange respectively. NIGERIAN:  CONTINENTAL RE TRIPPLES VOLUME BUT.... On Friday March 24, traded volume at the Nigerian stock exchange more than tripled to about 346m with great help from offload in Continental Reinsurance but it was a down beat day all the same. A very large parcel of 203.1m units had been sold in Continental Re involving 9 deals lifting volume from Thursday's 42% decrease but being a solo it had little impact on other indicators. For example total number of deals dropped by 8.87% to 2613 despite the volume leap and All shares index declined by 0.23% after closing more or less firm on Thursday. Trailing the Continental Re solo was International Breweries 10 deals for 27.25m units at a price 1.96% down and 30 deals in Stanbic IBTC with 30 deals for 16.65m shares. Indeed, only the top 5 recorded deals for above 12m with the remaining two being Access bank...

Kenya Electricity Generating Company Ltd (KenGen), Africa's top geothermal power generating company, is soon to increase its capacity 44.2% from current 1630 MW. This is because it has finally concluded plans to raise all of the 2,300.4m Ksh needed for the upgrade. On December 16, 2015 shareholders had approved a rights issue to raise the money and the issued eventually came on the Kenyan capital market in June last year. It ended up being 92.01% subscribed leaving the needed amount short . Now according to notice from the managing director, Eng Albert Mugo, an agreement has been signed with Public Investment corporation SOC ltd to take up the outstanding shares. PIC represents government employees pension fund The deal has been approved by the government of Kenya which after the initial rights take held about 73% of KenGshares   This will now be watered down to 70%. KenGen was established in 1954 and is the largest geothermal power generator in Kenya, East Africa and Africa and, s...

The two African NSEs, Nigerian stock exchange and Nairobi closed today March 23 leaning i quite different directions. NIGERIAN: ASI  FIRM.  Perhaps for the first this year, if not in years, today March 23 the All shares index closed more or less firm at 25514.03 compared to 25514.09 yesterday. This was because gains by industrial equities that pushed their index up by 1.96% and premium ones as the premium index rose by 0.15% was checkmated by down swings that led to 0.65% drop in the Lotus index; 0.6% decrease in consumer goods index; 0.37% drop in the main board index and more marginal decreases in oil and gas and NSE 30 indices. In terms of number the gainers werw more though (20 as against 14 losers) but only Nestlé Nigeria (up N9.0) and La farge Wapco (N3.2) gained much in Naira terms. However, 5 out of the 20 gainers topped up by above 4% with La Farge at the front with 8.47% followed by Learn Africa which gained 4.62% as for the second day, it recorded one deal for 100,000 units....

The two African NSEs: Nigerian and Nairobi stock exchanges continued to record All shares indices shift in opposite directions today March 22 easing in Nigerian SE and rising at Nairobi SE. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange, ASI eased 0.17% as 1.96% upward push by industrial index was checkmated by drops in the Consumer; Main board; Banking and NSE 30 indices. Volume recovered by 29.4% though as offload in UBA rose to 64.5m shares compared to about 52m offloaded yesterday. Just like for Tuesday, the whole market was far behind as the offload was sols in 3rd placed 171 deals to push total volume up to 198 8m. The closest in volume terms was GTB in which day high 277 deals were struck for 29.4m units although unlike UBA which gained 0.56%; it lost 1.08% per share. With total number of deals down by 13.7% to 2306 it turned out only the top five recorded deals above 100. Aside from GTB and UBA others were Zenith's second placed 187 deals for 4.17m units; Access ba...

DIAMOND TRUST BANK KENYA TO ACQUIRE HABIB, KENYA. All is almost set for Diamond Trust Bank Kenya to acquire Habib bank Kenya from the parent body: Pakistan's Habib Bank ltd. According to a formal notice from the company secretary, Stephen Kodunbe, the deal has been finalised and will involve the issuance of 13,281,105 new shares of Diamond Trust Bank to Habib Pakistan at 137.39 Ksh per share. This will water down holdings of existing shareholders by 4.75% and Habib Pakistan is already a shareholder in Diamond Trust  However, it is still subject to shareholders approval and approval of the State bank of Pakistan; the Central Bank of Kenya; Competition Authority, Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority, also of Kenya. Diamond Trust Bank operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi and hopes to expand its reach through synergy from the acquisition. NEW COMPANY SECRETARY FOR UNITY BANK. Nigeria's Unity Bank PLC has announced the appointment of Mohammed Shehu as its new company s...

Today March 21, both the Nigerian and Nairobi stock exchanges were dominated by activities in banks. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: ASI DOWN AS BANK DROPS CLUSTER At the Nigerian stock exchange today March 21, a cluster of bank price drops finally punctuated more than a week of daily rise in the All shares index. It dropped by 0.44% to 25558.57 as banking index declined by 1.96% following cluster of % drops led by newly quoted Jaiz Bank  The Islamic bank had lost N0.06 per share or 4.51% of opening price as 13 deals for 739,318 units were sealed at N1.27 per share to lead 8 losers out of 12 quoted banks in the main board. Eco bank Transnational had followed with 4.08% price loss as 44 deals were struck for 942,226 units; then Diamond bank came in 3.16% down for 43 deals involving 3,781 170 shares before UBA followed 2.93% down while day high 51,896 579 units were offloaded in second placed 194 deals. Others in the cluster went down with less than 2% and include Access bank down 1.43%; Sterli...

Ordinarily, Cooperative Bank Kenya ltd did not look destined to end 2016 year with higher margin but it did by clinching 32.2% as against 2015's 30.8%, In the first place growth in gross earnings at 9.98% to 54 966.3m Ksh was not that super even though driven by a higher 14.9% increaae in interest income to 42264.7m Ksh. guarded by double digit growths in interest income government securities and loans and advances. More scary was the fact that three major controllable  cost heads preferred double digit % top up with loan loss provision going up  with 28.7% to 2599.7m; and directors pay rising by 10.3% to 163.7m ksh. The third was Other operating expenses which ended the year up by 31.3% to 8592.8m Ksh to outpace all cost heads. Two others, staff costs and rent rose by single digit 5.32% to 9399.7m Ksh and 4.76% to 1462.4ksh respectively. To boot, fee and commission income fell short of 2015 by 0.38% at 2330.9m Ksh and fired trading income dived by 43.5% to 1804.3m Ksh. However, go...

It is possible that to have easy access and be on the same page with Access Bank, you may have to first define recession and what it does to banks. This is because all are agreed that Nigeria went into recession in 2016 and is still battling to get out of it but, Access Bank's 2016 figures simply says, no sweat, for us it was business as usual , more or less  Well a little fear of the fear of bad debts still showed in the form of 54.5% growth in impairment charges to N21,982.8m but certainly not the alarm button type as in three or four digit % growths, Indeed look more closely at the figures, you find that one of the key contributors to the bank's 191.9 leap in Other operating income to N19,945m was recovered bad debts although as paced by gains from disposal of some securities(mainly); income from other investment and dividends received. Now you may perhaps stop looking for telltale signs of the gale of recession and absorb Access Bank's 19 % rise in interest income to N2...

The Nigerian and Nairobi stock exchanges had one thing in common today Monday 20: solid banking support for leading offloads but with different outcomes. See below. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange good volume i banking as 10 out of 12 recorded deals sealed up top ten domination of the day's long time high 495 238 034 units, triple Friday figure. The last time this year that daily volume crossed the 400m mark was on February 28  when major offloads in Continental Re and Zenith drove it to 444,504,723units  This time around the feat was achieved on the back of offloads in Custodian & Allied Insurance and FBN Holdings with good support from the banking subsector. Lead volume was in Custodian where 7 deals for 176,410.745 units were recorded while its price per share went down 4.95%, the day's third highest % decrease. It was followed by third placed 172 deals in FBN Holdings for 150,353,486 units at a price down 1.27% per share  Both leading equities th...

Soon, it may cost less to raise money through the Nigerian capital market but a lot more to file and process. According to various amendments to existing rules and charges being proposed by the Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) the % take of various professionals involved in the  issuance of fixed income and equity securities will be adjusted mostly downwards including new caps for many of them. The SEC is proposing to reduce issuance cost for fixed income bonds for example by proposing zero income for the Nigerian stock exchange if it is from an already listed equity abd reducing the current 0.15% of offer to 0.0375% for non-already listed and 0.05% for state and supranational bonds. The adjustments being proposed do not affect the NSE alone every one involved from issuing houses to receiving agents, and solicitors are to settle for slightly lower % of the offer value as fees. The only exception are stockbrokers whose % take remains 0.13% of offer value for...

At the two NSEs last trading week ended Friday March 17, the strokes were abit different especially in terms of gainers and losers  NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange last week offloads in Diamond Bank helped push volume up by 0.56% to 1,029,268,546 units but could not stop total value from going down by 36% to N7 980m from N12464m clocked previous week  Total number of deals also dropped by 18% to 13441 deals with, as usual financial equities being responsible for top group deals  Week high number of deals was Zenith's 1375 but involving 4th placed 81,148,598 units valued at  3rd laced N1151.97m. Ahead of Zenith in terms of volume were the 208,757,906 units offloaded in Diamond bank within the week in 234 deals valued at just N176.3m to place ninth in terms of value. Leading the value chart for the week was Nestle Nigeria in which only 166 deals were recorded for equally lowly 2,097,778 units but because it is one of the highest Price's shares, value invol...