Thread by @Nairametrics

Hello everyone and welcome to @Nairametrics Corporate News Roundup for the week ended May 10, 2020.

This thread is brought to you by @BluechipTechNG.   

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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.

This week, we’ve got news about some appointments, effects of oil price crash on firms, milestones, partnership deals and companies that provided relief materials to ease the burden on people.

We have news about companies that posted either 2019 Full Year, or First Quarter financial results, and one that gave reasons for laying off some employees.
  
Let’s begin from there…

1/ No doubt, one of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is massive job loss. About 135 staff of Andela were suddenly laid off across five countries like Nigeria, US, Egypt, Kenya and Uganda.

There were no layoffs in Ghana and Rwanda, although the possibility of this happening in the near future abounds.
However, the company stated that no Andela software engineer was affected by what it described as the headcount reduction exercise.

Similar to so many other technology companies around the world, it said that it was not immune to the challenges of COVID-19, and the current global economic market required firms to conserve resources.

2/ On appointments, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointment of Sunday Thomas as the substantive Commissioner for Insurance/Chief Executive Officer, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

Thomas, who replaced the immediate past Acting Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, has over 30 years experience, in the industry, both as an operator and a regulator. He was appointed Deputy Commissioner in Charge of Technical matters by Buhari in April 2017.

The new NAICOM boss was formerly Director General of the Nigerian Insurers Association in 2010.

3/ The Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Obiora, took over as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM).

He replaces Joseph Nnanna, who was a former Deputy Governor of CBN and retired from the Board of NEXIM in February 2020.

This was disclosed in a statement to the general public, signed by the Head, Strategy & Corporate Communications of NEXIM Bank, Tayo Omidiji, on Wednesday, May 6, 2020.

The statement says: "With this appointment, Obiora will provide leadership to a multidisciplinary team of professionals that constitute the board of the bank, towards ensuring that the...

…bank achieves its mandate of promoting economic diversification and development of the Nigerian non-oil export sector."

4/ Following the global oil price crash that has seen Brent Crude decline by as much as 60%, Oando Plc disclosed that it had decided to cut down on its CAPEX and operating costs.

These are some of the immediate changes that the Nigerian oil company is making in a bid to cushion the effects of the economic fallout from the oil price crash. Earlier, the company ensured to hedge all of its barrels just as a precautionary measure.

Oando's Chief Operating Officer, Ainojie Alexander Irune, disclosed all this when he joined CNN's Julia Chatterley to talk about the global oil price crash and its effects on the Nigerian economy.

5/ Despite the economy’s lull, some organisations recorded some feats. One of them is the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which has enjoyed significant rallies in recent weeks.

As the Exchange sustains remote trading, free flow of information and vibrant market activity, the index has accelerated to +16.39% in the past month and ranks second in Bloomberg’s best performing indexes within the period.

Several factors have been identified as the reasons for this rally, including oil price recovery, the gradual easing of the lockdown in several economies, and the expectation of dividend payments, attracting investors to blue-chip stocks.

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6/ Cadbury Nigeria's board of directors met last Wednesday to deliberate on some important company matters.

One of the resolutions they reached was that the company's management should continue all existing business transactions with Mondelez International and all its subsidiaries and partners. This was for an extended period of one year.

In a corporate action that was issued earlier on Thursday, Cadbury Nigeria informed the Nigerian Stock Exchange and other stakeholders that its board members also ratified...

…all existing transactions that were earlier entered into with Mondelez International, its subsidiaries, and other business partners.

7/ Okomu Oil Palm Company Plc proposed a final dividend of N2 per 50 kobo share. Though subject to shareholders’ approval, it will only be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the Register of Members as at the close of business on May 29, 2020.

The company also announced that its board of directors would be meeting on Thursday, May 28, 2020 to take decisions on the company’s audited financial statements for the period that ended December 31, 2019, and other pressing matters.

8/ Guinness Nigeria Plc, in its just-released Q3 2020 results, had a drop in revenue of 17.6% from ₦33.6 billion in Q3 2019 to ₦27.6 billion in Q3 2020, with inflows from export revenue plunging by 78.6% from a year earlier.

Its profit after tax expectedly followed in a worrisome 97.2% drop from ₦1.7 billion in Q3 2019 to ₦46.4 million in Q3 2020.

The markets also reflect the company’s troubled waters.

Now at the bottom of its industry, its share price stood at ₦17.50 when markets closed on the 5th of May 2020. With a 52-week range of ₦17.50 and ₦52, its current share price is at an all-time low.

Unfortunately, it is still slightly trading at a premium when you consider the negative headwinds.

9/ Total Nigeria Plc also announced that its Board of Directors would be meeting on 13th May 2020 to take decisions on the company’s audited financial statements for the period...

…that ended 31st December 2019.

Total also informed the Nigerian Stock Exchange that it would observe its closed period starting from 4th May, 2020 until 24 hours after the audited 2019 financial statements is released.

10/ Following the relaxed lockdown policy introduced by the Lagos State government, ride-hailing firms, Bolt, Uber and ORide resumed operations on May 4, 2020.

For instance, Bolt, which disclosed this via an e-mail sent to its riders on Sunday, also issued community guidelines for the riders.

According to the mail, which was sent by "Uche from Bolt" (the email account it typically uses to send messages to its customers), the firm's drivers would work between the hours of 6am and 8pm, as directed by the state government.

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11/ Google and Facebook announced their intentions to open their physical office spaces soon, though employees were allowed to decide to work remotely.

Google had initially planned on keeping its remote working policy until June 1, 2020, but decided to extend it by seven more months.

Google’s Chief Executive, Sundar Pichai, explained that employees who needed to return to work would be able to do so from July 2020, with enhanced safety protocols adhered to.

12/ Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc announced that its Board of Directors would hold a meeting on Friday, May 22, 2020, to take decisions on the company’s audited financial statements for the period that ended December 31, 2019, and unaudited financial statements for Q1, 2020 results.

Meanwhile, the closed period, which began and was communicated on January 23, 2020, stays in force until 24 hours after the filing of the audited financial statement for the year ended December 31, 2019.

13/ First Bank of Nigeria Limited hosted its first virtual SME Business Clinic to provide insightful information on how SMEs could better manage the financial activities of their businesses. Titled “Developing a budget to keep your business afloat,”...

the clinic was designed to uphold the roles SMEs play in Nigeria, as that they are instrumental to the growth of our economy.

The FirstBank SME clinics have been instrumental to keeping SMEs better informed on how to manage, enrich and impact to their businesses.

Let's see how the week ahead goes...

That's our thread for this week.

Thanks to @BluechipTechNG for making this possible.

Special thanks to all our followers for your comments and retweets.

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

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