Thread by @Nairametrics

Hello everyone and welcome to @Nairametrics Corporate News Roundup for the week ended March 29, 2020. This thread is brought to you by @BluechipTechNG.

The thread starts here.

As usual, kindly retweet this thread so that others on your timeline may see and engage. If you are just seeing this thread for the first time, we do this every Sunday at 10pm, basically bringing you bitesize news from Corporate Nigeria.

The week was quite eventful in corporate Nigeria, especially as the Coronavirus pandemic gradually shuts the economy. We’ve got news about companies that supported the Federal Government in curbing the killer disease.

There was also news about corporate that partially shut their operations, even as more companies continue to ask their employees to work remotely.

We also have news about companies that sensitized their customers on what to do or not to do to prevent contacting COVID-19 or the spread.

Let’s begin with that story...

1/ A lot of Nigerians, especially the ones in states like Lagos, learnt new things about COVID-19 in the week, as MTN Nigeria creatively sensitized its customers on the need to ensure safety for themselves amid the spread of Coronavirus in the country.

While the telco asked gave precautionary measures to its staff when it asked them to work remotely, MTN replaced its network bar with ‘Stay Safe’ across mobile phone (at the top-left corner of devices).

In partnership with NCDC gave free data to its customers to search information about COVID-19.

2/ Meanwhile, Access Bank and Ecobank made a swift move last week when they had temporarily shut their branches visited by two persons that tested positive for Coronavirus.

In statements issued separately, the duo financial institutions stated that their attentions were drawn to the fact that the cases actually visited their branches.

While Ecobank confirmed that the deceased visited its Wuse II, Abuja branch on the 12 March 2020, Access Bank confirmed that an individual, who visited their Ligali Ayorinde Branch on Monday 16th March 2020, has also tested positive for Coronavirus.

The bank added that the case was symptom-free at the time he visited the branch and he is currently being monitored at an Isolation Centre.

The duo financial institutions advised anyone that visited the branches on those days should embark on self-isolation or call NCDC for assistance.

3/ Still on efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, the richest African, Aliko Dangote also initiated a move last week to help in the campaign against the spread of the disease.

The business mogul, through Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), led a coalition of private sector organisations to offer a shoulder to the Federal Government.
This gesture is in addition to the N200 million earlier pledged by the ADF to help curb the spread of the virus.

The Coalition Against Coronavirus (COCAVID) initiative will involve the erection of fully-equipped medical tents to house patients and serve as training, testing, isolation and treatment centres, with an additional facility also provided in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The initiative is led by Dangote Industries Limited, Access Bank Group, in collaboration with Zenith Bank, GTBank, and MTN among others.

They are saddled with the responsibilities of mobilizing the private sector, create public awareness and direct support to private and public healthcare institutions.

4/ In a related development, another business mogul and Founder Zenon Petroleum, Femi Otedola, took to Twitter and Instagram when he announced a donation of a sum of N1 billion towards the eradication of the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The billionaire took to his social media accounts (Twitter and Instagram) to disclose this donation. He urged others to join him to do all what they can to flatten the curve.

This comes as no surprise as one of the things Otedola is known widely for is his philanthropic activities and his words of urging people to be charitable instead of leaving everything for the government.

5/ One of the major implication of the coronavirus is job losses and that is gradually eaten deep into the fabrics of several corporate organisations.

For instance, Emirates Airline announced its decision to slash staff salaries, and suspend all passenger flights from Wednesday, March 25.

The development excludes cargo operations, which are expected to continue in order to preserve the airlines operations, and secure jobs worldwide.

Emirate’s decision came two days after the United Arab Emirates announced the first 2 deaths from the Coronavirus disease, after recording 153 infections and 38 recoveries in the country.

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6/ At home, Air Peace, Arik Air and Aero, among others also announced the suspension of their flight operations. The suspension that took effect by midnight on Friday, 27 March 2020 is part of the efforts made to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.

They reported in different statements that it was with great sense of responsibility that the decision was taken and it was also in the best interest of the nation, passengers and workforce to suspend scheduled flight operations, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

7/ Some hotels across the country took a decision that surprised Nigerians, as they partnered to provide self-isolation centres for people that might be infected with COVID-19.

The announcement was made by the founder, hotel booking agency, Hotels.ng, Mark Essien via his Twitter handle.

The hotels assured Nigerians that they would provide proper self-isolation protocols, full room-service and easy access to doctors.

According to them, the rooms are heavily discounted, so the cost is minimal. Essien urged people, who were showing symptoms of the virus or who were already diagnosed with the virus, to book the hotels in case they wanted to self-isolate, and not pass it down to their families.

8/ In the power sector, Ikeja Electric encouraged its numerous customers living around Oshodi, Shomolu and Ikeja to preload their meters to avoid power outage as the stay-at-home order during the coronavirus crisis may be prolonged.

The Distribution Company disclosed this in a series of tweets and explained that the preloading of the smart cards of up to 2 months would enable it put plans in place to ensure that its customers enjoyed power supply throughout the period of the virus spread.

9/ A Tier-one bank raised the bar, as it is constructing a first among the equal Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative towards addressing the health hazards caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Nigeria.

The bank is no other than GTBank Plc which disclosed that it was building a 100-bed intensive care centre.
Its Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Mr Segun Agbaje, made the disclosure and explained that the medical facility is going to be...

…fully-equipped with modern facilities for the treatment of Nigerians who may be infected with the dreaded COVID-19 disease, which is currently ravaging the entire globe.

10/ On deals, a conglomerate, BUA Group, acquired a majority stake in P.W. Nigeria Limited, one of the largest construction, engineering and mining companies in Nigeria.

In its disclosure, BUA said the acquisition was done in order to further deepen its investments in the infrastructure business in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Founder of the group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, explained that the development marks the beginning of the next phase of the firm’s medium-term strategy for its infrastructure business, following the completion of the consolidation of its cement arm, BUA Cement, in January 2020.

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11/ Meanwhile, Seplat Petroleum Plc posted a Profit before deferred tax of $270.3 million in its 2019 financial year end, up by 13.4% from $238 million recorded in 2018.

While Seplat Petroleum’s cash at bank stood at $333 million against $585 million in 2018, its operating cash flow was $338 million.

Seplat Petroleum continued to emphasize that its gas diversification, which has been about 30% of its group revenue, came from gas, this time $203million.

12/ In the capital market, some quoted firms rewarded their shareholders. One of them, BOC Gases Nigeria Plc proposed a final dividend of N0.30k per N0.50k ordinary share, which was subject to appropriate withholding tax and shareholders approval.

The dividend will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the Register of Members as at the close of business on June 05, 2020. This was disclosed in a notification sent by the company to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The notice stated that the register of shareholders would be closed from June 08, 2019, to June 10, 2019.

13/ The shareholders of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, the holding firm for Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and its other subsidiaries have the choice to receive scrip dividend from the declared result of full year 2019.

The action is to be effected following the approval by the Board of Director of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc.

This was announced in a notification by Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, which was signed by the Company Secretary, Chidi Okezie, and sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on March 26, 2020.

14/ Fidelity Bank Plc proposed a dividend payment of 20 kobo per 50 kobo share, subject to shareholders’ approval and appropriate withholding tax.
This was disclosed in a notification sent by the bank to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The notice stated that the register of shareholders would be closed from April 20 to 24, 2020. The dividend, which is subject to withholding tax, will be paid to shareholders whose names appear on the register of members at the close of business on the 17th of April 2020.

15/ The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) notified its Dealing Members that eTranzact International Plc through its lead Stockbroker, Meristem Capital Limited, submitted an application for the approval and listing of a Rights Issue.

The Rights Issue is of Four million Six hundred and sixty million Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty-Seven (4,666,666,667) ordinary shares of fifty kobo (N0.50) each at One Naira Fifty Kobo (N1.50) per share, on the basis of ten (10) new ordinary shares...

…for every nine (9) ordinary shares held. Recently, in its financial result released for 2019, eTranzact International Plc had revenues fall -63.96% from N18.62 billion to N6.71 billion, though the company grew net income from a loss of N3.14 billion to a gain of N99.79 million.

16/ The state-owned oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) released its monthly operational and financial report for December 2019.

This was disclosed in a statement signed and released by the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie Obateru.

In the report, the corporation announced an increase in trading surplus of N5.28 billion in its December 2019 operations compared to the N3.95 billion posted in November last year. This represents a 34% increase.

17/ Food and beverage giant, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, also released its audited financial statement for full-year December 2019. The results released indicated some slight improvement in most of its performance indicators as it recorded a 26% increase in profit.

The company recorded a revenue of N39.3 billion as at December 31, 2019, as against the N35.9 billion, which was achieved in the corresponding period for 2018. This represents a 9% increase.

The gross profit for full-year 2019 was N8.32 billion as against the N7.95 billion which was achieved in the corresponding period for 2018. This represents a 5% increase.

As we always say...your guess is as good as mine.

That's our thread for this week.

Thanks to @BluechipTechNG for making this possible.

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

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