HENATES

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria (SEC Nigeria) has extended the deadline it earlier gave for e-dividend account registration from the end of this month by six months to December 31, this year. According to an official notice dated yesterday June 29, 2017 and posted on its website not too long ago, the issue of conventional dividend warrants to shareholders will no longer stop to be replaced by electronic payment from this month but from end of the year. Also, SEC Nigeria will continue to underwrite the cost of opening and registering e-dividend accounts on the payment platform in a bid to continue to encourage investors to embrace the new payment system for dividends due to them. So far, says SEC, about 2.2m investors have mandated their accounts on the platform to receive their dividends in future through electronic payment as against through dividend warrants payable into individual accounts. With e-dividend, payment is expected to be automatic and within a day...

At both the Nigerian and Nairobi stock markets Thursday June 29, 2017, traded value increased significantly especially at Nairobi where it more than tripled to 755.8m Kshillings from 211,8m the previous day. NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE: At Nairobi stock market on June 29, the 256.85 leap in traded value was mainly as deals were recorded in sparsely traded and high priced British American Tobacco (BAT) for 328,00 units worth about 263.8m Ksh thus accounting for then bulk of the leading 35.33% or 267m Ksh of traded value contributed by the Manufacturing and allied sector. But in terms of volume, Safariccom, with its low nominal value and resultant high number of issued units topped the day with deals for 9.288m shares at between 23 and 23.75 % worth 215m Ksh. .As a pointer to the place of deals recorded in high nominal value and still high priced equities like BAT, Safaricom recorded volume was about 39.2% of the day's 23.7m shares traded units  as against their traded value co...

NIGERIA; CHELLARAMS IN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP After 25 years of importing and selling dairy brands from Deutsches Milkchkontor (DMK) of Germany, Nigeria's Chellarams plc has finally signed an agreement with DMK establishing a partnership to substitute the imports with dairy products produced in Nigeria. According to the company secretary, Mrs E.D NNoruka, in a notice published on the Nigerian stock exchange website today, June 29, the new agreement will lead to the establishment of a new company; Chellarams DMK Ltd to manage production, marketing, sales and distribution of a full range of dairy products across Nigeria. It replaces a simple distribution agreement between both companies 25 years ago. Chellarams DMK Ltd, adds NNoruka, intends to invest in a large distribution network by partnership with key distributors. Meanwhile, the Exchange has granted Chellarams more time till July 31 this year to file its annual accounts for the year to February 28. 2017 due since May...

UNILEVER NIGERIA TO RAISE N58.8BN THROUGH RIGHTS ISSUE Are you a shareholder in Unilever Nigeria Plc?  Soon you will be asked to invest N420 more to buy 14 new shares for 27 of the current shares you hold. According to the Acting Head, Listing Regulation department of the Nigerian stock exchange, Godstime Iwenekhai, this is because Unilever has formally applied to the exchange for approval to issue a rights that will involve about 1,961.7m new shares  of 50kobo each. If approved, the rights offer will be at N30 per share meaning that Unilever will be raising about N58.8bn in new capital from shareholders existing in the books by yesterday, June 28, 2017. It also means that given today's closing price of N40.85 per share at the market, the rights may be issued at a discount of about N10.85 per share if it is approved and if the current price stays until the real issue date. The last deal  struck at the market today in Unilever, according to the daily official l...

The Nigerian stock exchange reopened from two day sallah holiday today June 28, 2017 to join Nairobi Securities exchange to ease in activity although its All shares index rose by 1.67% to 32,657 while it dropped by 0.8% at Nairobi. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange, the ASI increase was accompanied by 7.49% drop in traded volume to 386.28m shares and 19.95 decrease in number of deals by 19.9% to 4372 although traded value rose marginally by 1.76% to N3.303bn. The main drivers of the increase in ASI were lead Naira gains in top weighted Dangote Cement, Nestle Nigeria ; Forte Oil and GTB. Nestle Nigeria led  26  Naira gainers with N9.99 per share top or 1.11% with 49 deals for 0.3m shares worth 5th ranked N272.57m. Indeed, that that amount placed 5th on the traded value chart for the day was enough indication of how scarce traded Naira was. Dangote cement  closed up by N4.40 per share or 2.25% and recorded 42 deals for another less than a mil...

In the wake of Nigeria's high priced quoted companies posted in this blog a while ago, Henates took a look to at Nairobi Securities Exchange June 23 official list to identify its high priced equities and the outcome was interesting too. Of the 66 companies quoted on the market by June 23, 15 or 22.7% were valued averagely at above 30 times nominal value. A word of caution though: There are two clear differences between the Nigerian stock market list and that of Nairobi: In the Nigerian one most listed companies have par or nominal value of N0.50 as is there is an implied agreement on this. On the other hand, at Nairobi most of the equities do not share common par value, they differ greatly. Then another thing, Nigerian equities are not valued below par, Nairobi ones can and many are so valued. Of the top 15 high priced equities at the Nairobi market, Safaricom topped with because by June 23, at 23.25 Ksh average price, it was valued 465 times its nominal value of just 0.0...

Are you one of those who gauge the Nigerian stock exchange through the various sectoral indices and NSE 30 index? Then watch out. From July 1, the immediate changes in them you see may not reflect just changes in market prices but also changes in the equities that make up the basket for each of the indices. This is because from that date, the Nigerian stock exchange's first bi-annual review of the indices basket for this year will come into effect and the proposed exit and entry equities point to possible immediate distortions especially in the NSE 30. For example, according to the exchange, the NSE 30 which is second only to the All shares index as full market indicator, may have five new entrants into the basket and the interesting thing is that four out of the five are banks. In other words, from the current 8 banking related equities amongst the NSE 30, the number is to increase to 12 from July while manufacturers will reduce by one as Cadbury Nigeria makes entry and 7Up bo...

With Nigeria's sallah holiday stretching into  second day as usual, the bond market at Nairobi Securities exchange broke with doldrums of recent weeks today Tuesday, June 27, 2017 after its one day holiday. In all 48 deals were recorded in bonds, up 41.2% on the 34 clocked last Friday and traded value jumped by 84% to 4bn Kshillings compared to just 2.177bn previously. As usual, most active stocks were the government fixed income of above 50m Ksh nominal value as 3.798bn Ksh worth of deals were sealed. Top of the deals was the 850m Ksh worth recorded in Infrastructure bond 12.5% issued May 2016 and due 2025. There were no deals in the sell or buy back sector of the market and deals in stocks below 50m Ksh came to about 206m Ksh. It was the equities segment that took a dive in activity as traded volume decreased by 29.7% to 25.27m shares and traded value dropped by 46.1% to 598.6m Ksh. There was also 14.5% decline in number of deals to 1109 as against 1391 last Friday. Tog...

A close study of the daily official list for Friday June 23, 2017 recently showed that of the 173 equities quoted on the Nigerian stock exchange, 46 or 26.6% were priced 10 times their nominal value and above. These were the high priced equities as at last trading day and only two bank related companies; made the list: GTB and Stanbic IBTC; there were no insurance companies at all, in fact most of them were priced at par and domination was by petroleum companies and manufacturing concerns. The top 10 included three petroleum companies; two brewing concerns; two food processing companies, one bottling company, cement manufacturing company and equity capital company. Top of the heap was Nestle Nigeria plc priced at N900.01 per share by June 23 2017, which was 1,800.02 times its nominal value of N0.50 per share. It turned out to be the most volatile of the lot in the 12 months to that date. Its high as at then was N975 meaning it was closer to this and the low was  N570 per shar...

In the year 2008, just about nine years ago, a major crash occurred in the world of Nigerian finance partly as worldwide crash also occurred. It took so many moves and the creation of Asset Management Company of Nigeria before Nigerian banks and by immediate extension, the Nigerian capital market could survive the storm. Now, with the economy getting  oh so slowly out of recession, is year 2008 knocking on the door again? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. It has in fact been knocking on the door since 2016 dive into economic recession and all it has been waiting for is one major can't pay, won't pay and the door will be kicked open. Simple: Most Nigerian banks have since last year been struggling to accommodate increasing number of potential toxic loans especially those extended to the oil and gas industry hit by militancy, end of petroleum subsidy regime, birth of interbank market amidst chronic scarcity of foreign currency and inflation driven high cost of op...

In the first quarter to March 2017, the most remarkable thing about Con Oil PLC was the fact that it closed clear of the loss league. According to the interim figures for the period released last week, by the end of the quarter Con oil recorded 118.9% bounce back to report N173.5m profit before tax compared to N255.1m loss at the same time in 2016. This was because it had so many things going for it major among which was the fact pump price of petrol went up official and white products, its main stay were relatively more available. Driven by 29.2% increase in revenue from white products (PMS, Aviation fuel, Kerosine etc) to N23,465.4m, core revenue increased by 28.5% to N23474.3m. Even though, 33.5% drop in other income to N30.9m depressed total income growth to 28.4% at N24,505.2m, cost of sale lower % growth by 24% to N21,155.8m helped gross profit to increase by 67.6% to N3218.5m. That was indeed a good foundation to build on and that was where other factors came in handy....

For the third day running, the All shares index dived today, Friday, June 23, 2017 as bearish mood continued at the Nigerian stock exchange but Nairobi securities exchange continued up wards. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: at the Nigerian stock exchange, even though number of equities with price drops (33) was less and that of gainers (21) more than yesterday's, the decline in ASI was stronger at 2.25% to 32,122.14 compared to 1.64% drop yesterday after Wednesday's 2.64% decrease. The pressure downwards was mainly from industrial and premium equities as led by Dangote Cement with N9.40 per share drop or 4.59% and Nigerian Breweries with N6.13 per share or 3.88%. The industrial index ended the day down by 4.55% to 1870.94 as Okomu Oil ( down N3.24 per share) and La Farge Africa  (down by N2.55 or 4.99%) joined Nigerian Breweries to lead drops in the sector. As for the premium index, it dropped by 3.91% principally as Dangote cement and the two other equities on then board, Z...

UGANDA: BOARD CHANGES AT UMEME LTD Uganda's Umeme ltd which is quoted on the Nairobi securities exchange, has announced major changes on its board of directors with effect from June 20, 2017. According to the company secretary. Messrs Shonubi, Musoke &co, two new directors were appointed to the board and one retired as per corporate governance code  dictates. The new directors are: Mr Andrew Buglass and Mr Anthony  Narsh, both appointed as non executive directors. Mr Buglass, says the secretary of the company, has wide experience in global energy development particularly funding and development of global energy since 1992 with activities spanning over 30 countries all over the world. He also has complimentary and extensive experience in oil and gas investment . On the other hand, Mr Narsh has over 30 years experience in financing infrastructure, especially power assets.  Recently, he was the CEO of Frontier Markets Fund Managers providing funding and gua...

On Thursday June 22 2017, it was once again bearish at the Nigerian stock market but not so at Nairobi securities exchange. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE At the Nigerian stock market, the All shares index (ASI) closed down for the second day by 1.64% to 32,928.44 after Wednesday:s more pronounced decrease. This time around bears left a trail of 45 price drops 10 of were above 4%. The leading % price drop was recorded in May & Baker down 9.62% or by N0.53 per share. It recorded 51 deals for 0.779m shares worth N3.88m. Transcorp followed with 9.52% decrease or by N0.16 per share and witnessed 137 deals fpr 3rd ranked 60.3m shares worth N91.7m. Three other major % price drops were by Wema bank (down 8.96% or N0.06 per share); Ecobank with 8.47% decrease or by N1.23 per share and Diamond bank which lost 8.2% or N0.10 per share. Of the trio, only Diamond bank featured in top of any activity indicator. It witnessed 8th ranked 199 deals for 2nd placed 70.288m shares valued at N96.18m. Top Naira...

At Africa's two NSEs, the bears were back June 21 2017 but not at Nairobi Securities Exchange. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange Wednesday June 21 2017, bearish market drove most prices down volumeting in a major 2.61% drop in All shares index to 33,477.89. The pressure on ASI came more from decline in all three equities in the premium board resulting in 4.20% dive in its index to 2227.93 coupled with 2 3.56% decrease in industrial index to 1975.08; in pension index by 2.55% to 1179.55 and indeed in all sectoral indicea except ASEM index which closed up by 0.16% at 1170.08. The unusual happened actually in the emerging market sector (ASEM); the only waste management company, The Initiates plc, gained N0.76 per share and recorded a lone deal for 120,000 units to push up the ASEM index. The slide in premium index was led by Dangote cement down by 2nd day high N8.97 per or 4.19% closing with 75 deals for 1.596m shares worth 5th ranked N328.27m. In th...

Have you ever engaged in multiple subscription for shares on public offer in Nigeria to beat permitted limits per person? Then get prepared to lose your dividend and even shares if by September 1 you do not consolidate them. According to a public circular posted by the Securities and Exchange commission yesterday June 20 on its website, the practice was not healthy for the Nigerian capital market and SEC set up a committee to review what to do about it. Multiple subscribers usually use different variations of their name to apply for shares in other to be allocated more than stipulated units per investor, and so the committee recommended that those who could be verified be allowed to consolidate their holdings into one name by PR before September 1 this year. If they fail to do so or can not be verified as shareholders, dividends accrued to the holdings and even the shares will be forfeited to the National Capital Market Development Fund.. The recommendation, says SEC; has been accepted...

At both the Nigerian stock exchange and Nairobi securities exchange Tuesday, June 20, 2017, activity was relative as it continued to decline in Nigeria but recovered strongly in Nairobi. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange, decline was the name of the day as even though All shares index increased by 0.71% to 34375.60. Traded value dropped by 25.8% to N4.217bn; traded volume came to 392.268m, down 18.7% and number of deals struck declined by 1.13% to 5412. The increase in ASI was after Monday's 0.96%n  rise and was driven mainly by 25 gainers with higher margin of gains than 27 price losers with lower margins and more by low priced equities. The Oil and gas index dropped by 1.22% to 320.81 and Banking index too eased by 0.68% to 413.82 but ASI was driven the opposite way by 1.3% rise in premium index to 2325.62 as Dangote Cement and FBN Holdings had gains and Zenith eased and by 1.06% increase in consumer goods index to 824.04. The gainers were led by a...

Nigeria's Debt Mangement Office (DMO) will this month issue its first ever Islamic non-interest bond (Sukuk) in the form of N100bn ($328m) 7 year non-interest bearing bond. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the proposal has been approved and was indeed encouraged by SEC to help deepen the Nigerian capital market just as African countries like South Africa; Senegal and Cote'd Ivoire have done in recent past. In 2013, SEC had issued the guidelines for the issuance of Sukuk in Nigeria following which Osun state government successfully issued the very first such bond in Nigeria raising N11bn  from the capital market and it was oversubscribed says SEC. The Central Bank of Nigeria has also since issued its own guidelines on Sukuk permitting banks to compute them among liquid assets and providing a discount window to any one who may want to discount his holding before it falls due. The National pension Commission, says SEC, has also approved Sukuk as fi...

NIGERIA: NIPCO BIDS FOR MOBIL OIL After it recent deal that led to majority holding in Mobil oil PLC, NIPCO Investment  ltd has exercised its mandatory right to make take over bid for the listed company  According to formal notice to the stock market by its stockbrokers, Cordros Securities, the bid has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hence minority shareholders are expected to submit their acceptance forms on or before the 29th of this month. Such shareholders must be registered in Mobil oil Nigeria books by April 10, this year. The acceptance forma are to be forwarded to GTL Registrars Ltd 266, Muhammed Way, Yaba before 1pm on that 29th. Shareholders can also call +244 9049041-2 for more information. JULIUS BERGER GOES INTO CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION Nigeria's construction giant, Julius Berger, has decided to diversify into crude oil production. According to the company secretary, Mrs C E Madueke, to this effect, a strategic partnership and joint venture agreeme...

After top daily volume on Friday at the Nairobi securities exchange, it crashed today Monday June 19 while it continued to ease at the Nigerian stock market. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock market, traded volume started the week down by 2.18% to 482.5m shares and because more low priced equities dominated, traded value dropped by a higher 8.9% to N5.681bn but number of deals increased by 5.42% to 5771. Rarely traded Wema Bank led traded volume perhaps for the first time ever as 62.9m shares in it were offloaded in 99 deals worth N38.369m just outside the day's top ten by value.Wema ended 7.02% up at N0.61 per share. It was followed by usually far more active GTB up 0.76% at N36 per share with 3rd ranked 415 deals for 50.443 shares worth about N1.8bn, the only equity with above N1bn traded value. Access bank at N10 per share recorded 5th 321 deals for 34.486m units worth also 5th ranked N344.16m. Access was closely followed by Transcorp with 7th placed 245 deals for 3...

Recently the Presidency in Nigeria proudly announced on social media that the Buhari administration has spent N3.77bn  so far feeding 1.28m school children in 9 states of the federation. The participating states were Zamfara, the only one from the North; three from South West: Oyo, Osun and Ogun; one from South South.Delta and four from South East: Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia. In the process, it said, 14,000 cooks have been hired to Cook the meals and naturally, the children must be learning more now than before. So, it is on schedule to feed at least over 3m school children this year. Oh, sure, it means that the Buhari administration means well for our children and believes very much in keeping its political promises. Well that may be true, but one sad part of today's Nigeria and one of the lessons Nigeria must learn from the current blessing in disguise called recession, is the fact that our educational system has collapsed completely and that for years we have been...

Friday, June 16, 2017 closed on a very pisitive note for Nairobi securities exchange as traded volume jumped from 31.5m shares on Thursday to a new daily high of 141.7m units dragging traded value to 2.55bn Ksh compared to 881.1m on Thursday but at the Nigerian stock exchange, everything pointed down except All shares index. NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE At the Nairobi securities exchange total number of deals recorded too went up but not in the same range with traded volume and value;  ending the week at 1514, up 19.4% while All shares index came to 154.08 representing 0.75% increase on Thursday's 152.94. Even though pace setting Safaricom recorded equally high increase in traded volume; it ended the day playing second fiddle to Kenol Kobil in the energy and petreoleum sectot although both equities had deals for top offloads, by the market standard. Kenol Kobil in what could very well turn out to be record offering, had deals for 65.3m shares traded at between 12.05 and 13 K...

At both the Nigerian stock exchange and Nairobi securities exchange Thursday June 15, it was a case of close mild growth in the All shares index in each market. NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: At the Nigerian stock exchange ASI closed up by 0.59% to 33.797.84 but accompanied with 24.4% and 10.5% drops in traded volume to 573.6m shares and 6584 respectively. However, there was 24.7% increase in traded value to N7.85bn despite the volume drop and less scramble by investors. Both traded value and volume were dominated by three equities: GTB; Zenith and Access bank. GTB was the leading contributor to traded value with N1,842.48m worth from 3rd ranked 439 deals involving 4th placed 51.37m shares. It ended the day up by 1.67% or N0.59 per share. Zenith bank, after a while of warming the crowded bench, closed Thursday at number two in terms of deals, volume and value. Gaining 4.61% or N1.01 per share, 760 deals were recorded for 70.9m units worth N1,597.45m. Access bank also ranked wel...

Time was when because Chief Samuel Asabia, as the managing director of First bank of Nigeria, he ate pounded yam sitting on the  floor with heads of state in Nigeria and still turn down invitations to become the nation's finance minister. Those were the days when because he was also the CEO of THE First Bank, his word was the law in the Nigerian capital market as he doubled as President of the council of the Nigerian stock exchange. Days that saw a man like Chief Ernest Shonekan say goodbye to the revolving doors of UAC of Nigeria to become head of government without putting on any uniform or belonging to any political party; days when what qualified an Alhaji Waziri to contest for the presidency of Nigeria was the fact that he was once a manager at UAC of Nigeria. These days. of course, the FBN Holdings, as old First bank has since restructured into as a group, and the UACs struggle to be noticed at the Nigerian stock exchange, not to talk of the larger Nigerian economy with t...