Thread by @ugodre

Hello Everyone. Welcome to @Nairametrics Corporate News Roundup for the week ended January 20, 2019. BTU by @BluechipTechNG

Thread Starts here.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG As usual, kindly retweet the first tweet on this thread so that others on your timeline can see.

Also feel free to comment on any of the stories covered on this thread and ask questions if there are areas requiring further clarification.

We begin...

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG 1. First Bank and Microsoft at the weekend unveiled their partnership. As part of terms of the deal, First Bank customers will be able to buy Microsoft products, using Naira cards and at discounted rates.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG Customers will also have the option of paying for Microsoft productivity tools on a monthly or annual basis.

@Nairametrics @BluechipTechNG In addition, they will also get access to capacity building and a platform for SME education.

2. Ecobank Trans International commonly known as Ecobank has announced the appointment of Arunma Oteh to its board.

Oteh, a former Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission has also worked at the World Bank and African Development Bank.

She is currently an Academic Scholar at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University as well as an Executive-in-Residence at the SAID Business School.

3. Forte Oil Plc this week announced it would be holding an Extra Ordinary General Meeting on the 7th of next month.

Agenda of the meeting is to obtain shareholders approval to enter into discussions with its Chairman Femi Otedola. Otedola has indicated an interest in buying some assets the company has put up for sale.

The assets are the firm’s upstream unit, Ghanaian operations and stake in the Geregu power plant.

The assets will be independently valued, and the transaction conducted on an arms-length basis.

Forte had last year announced Otedola would be divesting from the downstream arm, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

So I guess Otedola, will still maintain a presence in the oil and gas sector.

4. Guinness Nigeria Plc at the weekend shed more light on a fire that occurred at its Aba plant on Friday.

According to a press release issued by the brewer, there were no injuries or major material loss resulting from the incident as the Aba premises currently serves as a logistics centre with a few personnel on site.

The brewer also stated that its major production operations take place in Benin and Ogba Breweries. So the bottles and cans will keep rolling out.

5. Still, in the brewery space, Nigerian Breweries has debunked rumours that fake Amstel Malta was circulating in the market.

According to the firm, the rumors arose as a result of it revising the packaging for the product and including the NIS logo from the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON).

6. Now to banking news, last week was a busy one for Access Bank Plc. First, the bank held a joint press briefing where it announced it had obtained approval in principle from the CBN and SEC for its planned merger with Diamond Bank.

Access has also maintained there would be no job losses and customer favorites at Diamond, such as its mobile app would be retained.

On the sidelines of the press briefing, it announced it would be expanding to three African countries before the end of the year.

Access Bank currently has operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Zambia.

Barely a few days after this, the bank issued a statement clarifying rumours it would be raising N150 billion in bonds by 2021.

According to the bank, it had submitted applications for a N15 billion bond to the CBN and SEC but had not yet received approval.

After receiving all clear from regulators, and dependent on market conditions, it would then decide on whether to proceed to raise the green bonds.

A green bond, by the way, is simply one in which the proceeds are channeled towards environmentally friendly projects.

Still on fundraising, Afrinvest Limited, an investment banking firm in partnership with Syntaxis Capital Africa launched a N12 billion private equity fund.

7. The funds raised will be used to fund Small and Medium Scale Enterprises around the country. If you run an SME, this should interest you.

8. In other private equity news, the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) announced that it had invested $15 million in CardinalStone Capital Advisors Growth Fund (CCA) growth fund.

The CDC is owned by the UK Government.

CCA, which is a spinoff from CardinalStone Partners, will allocate the funds to six sectors: agriculture, industrials, FMCG, healthcare, education, and financial services.

9. Fans of Big Brother Naija may be in for a good time as Bet9ja has signed up as the lead sponsor of this year’s edition.

Unconfirmed reports state that Payporte, which was last year's lead sponsor, has run into some difficulty.

Last year's edition went viral and some of the finalists remain quite popular. I won't be surprised if some people place heavy bets on who will clinch the top prize.

10. Managing Director of Heritage Bank MD, Ifie Sekibo, has hinted at plans to raise capital from some unnamed investors.

Sekibo, also disclosed that the bank would be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in the near future.

11. NEM Insurance once again has a spot in our roundup.

Last week, the company announced that AFIG funds had taken up a 29.9% stake, and was now the single largest shareholder.

While private equity firms typically don’t play their cards in the open, AFIG may have bought the stake held by the VFD Group and other key investors.

Asides its latest investment, AFIG also has stakes in FSDH and PAL Pensions.

12. Following reports that broke a few weeks back, over the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) shutting their premises, Morrison Industries Plc and Meyer Plc issued responses.

Meyer Plc, in its response, stated that the shut down lasted a few hours, and was due to an error on the part of the FIRS.

The agency had shut it down due to tax arrears of N54.6 million for the 2016 assessment year which it had paid.

After providing proof of payment, its premises were reopened.

Morrison Industries Plc also stated that its shut down was due to tax liabilities for the 2016 assessment year.

After providing proof of payment, the premises got reopened.

13. Sovereign Trust Insurance may be planning on raising capital in the near future going by an application it made to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The insurance firm submitted an application for the approval and listing of a rights issue of 4,170,411,648 ordinary shares of N0.50 each at N0.50 per share, on the basis of 1 new share for every 2 ordinary shares held.

The qualification date for the rights issue was Tuesday, 15 January 2019.

The company seems to be one of the few going on with a capital raise despite the scrapping of the risk-based capitalization programme.

14. The last may not have been heard of the exit of Adrian Wood's Teleology Holdings from 9Mobile. Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC Umar Dambatta stated that the regulator had taken proactive steps to avert a crisis.

9Mobile had few weeks ago issued a strongly worded statement accusing Wood of incompetence and inability to raise promised funds.

15. In our last news item for the thread, Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc, SAHCO unveiled ground handling equipment valued at N1 billion.

SAHCO which a few weeks ago concluded an Initial Public Offer (IPO) is expecting more equipment to be delivered soon.

That's it for the week. Thanks for all the retweets, comments and feedback.

Special thanks to @BluechipTechNG for making this thread possible.

Until we do this again next week do have a profitable week ahead.

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