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Hello Everyone, welcome to @Nairametrics corporate news roundup for the week ended May 19th, 2018.

This roundup is BTU by @BluechipTechNG

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1. Statoil, a Norwegian state oil company, has lost an arbitration case against Chevron and Petrobras “over the redetermination of shares in Nigeria’s largest deepwater oilfield – Agbami.”

Statoil, Chevron and Petrobras are shareholders in Agbami and the dispute has been whether Statoil owns 20.21 per cent or 15.04 per cent of the oil bloc. The arbitration ruled that Statoil owns 15.04% and not 20.21%. Reports suggest that this ruling could cost $1.1 billion.

2. Canadian listed mining company Thor Explorations, revealed plans to bring “Nigeria’s first large-scale gold mine online in early 2020”.

Its CEO, Segun Lawson, claims that their aim is to produce gold in the first quarter of 2020. He also said that they have probable gold reserves of around 500,000 ounces.

According to him, “Thor is currently developing the country’s most advanced gold mine” The project named, Segilola Gold Project, is located in Osun State.

According to Thor, it has a mining and exploration licence and is considering options for raising $72 million to get the mine into production. Lawson bought the Segilola project in 2016 for $3.1 million in cash plus $6 million in Thor shares.

3. Recall that a few weeks ago, we had mentioned that Brazil’s Petrobras was seeking to exit from Nigeria and Africa through the sale of its heavily indebted African entity, Petrobras Oil & Gas BV, or Petrobras Africa.

Reports indicate that Vitol, Glencore, and Shell (three of the world’s leading oil traders) have signified interests in picking up the Nigerian asset.

Petrobras has stakes in two offshore blocks that contain two oil producing fields, the major Agbami field in OML 127 and Akpo field OML 130 operated by Chevron Nigeria and Total SA respectively.

According to Reuters, Vitol bid together with the oil upstream subsidiary of U.S. private equity firm, Warburg Pincus called Delonex, and Canadian-listed, Africa Energy Corp, an oil and gas exploration firm that is part of Sweden’s Lundin Group.

Glencore joined with Nigerian listed firm, Seplat, and French firm, Maurel & Prom, that is majority-owned by the Indonesian government.

Indonesia’s state oil firm, Pertamina, also backs Maurel & Prom and owns a 20 per cent stake in Seplat. The third bidder was privately-held Famfa Oil together with Royal Dutch Shell.

Famfa Oil is one of the concessionaires in the operation of the Agbami oil field along with Chevron, Statoil and Petrobras. Chevron holds the majority stake.

4. AMCON has obtained an interim forfeiture order from a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos with respect to the assets belonging to Sea Petroleum Oil and Gas Limited.

The company is owned by former Minister of Aviation and current Senator representing Anambra North constituency, Stella Oduah. This was due to the inability of the company to settle a N20 billion debt due to AMCON.

The court also granted AMCON the permission to appoint a receiver manager for the company. Among the assets covered by the forfeiture order are over 9000 square kilometres of land along Lekki-Epe Express Way,

two tank farms, a property at Maiyegun Tourism Zone, Lekki Peninsula Scheme 11, Lagos Island and a filling station complex at kilometre 14, Lekki Epe Expressway, Ikota, Lagos State.

5. The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has named nine financial institutions which it will use to disburse funds to entrepreneurs in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector, under its intervention fund programme.

They include five commercial banks: Wema Bank, Ecobank, Sterling Bank, Diamond Bank and Fidelity Bank; and four microfinance banks made up of MicroCredit, Infinity, Busack and Fortis. The list notably excludes the FUGAZ.

According to its CEO, Tony Okpachi, more banks will be included in the scheme as volume increases.

DBN is targeting long-term funding to about 20,000 MSMEs operators in the first year of full operation and will disburse the funds via the listed financial institutions. It will not be dealing directly with the borrowers.

This is @Nairametrics thread BTU by @BluechipTechNG.

6. First Bank announced during the week that its debit cards can now be used to make payments in the London transport network such as buses, tubes, trams, docks, light Railway and the London Overground .

Payments can also be made in grocery shops, supermarkets and gas stations within London metropolis

According to the bank, payments are made by tapping the card on the POS machines with contactless functions for low-value transactions.

6. Petrocam, a Nigerian based oil company has taken Union Bank to court claiming N6.5 billion over an alleged negligence and breach of contract.

According to the report, Petrocam claims it got into an arrangement with Union Bank to help purchase the dollar equivalent of $76.6 million when the exchange rate was still N155-N160 to the dollar.

However, the forex was not purchased until the exchange rate was N288-N300 making the company lose money.

Union Bank on the other hand filed another suit against Petrocam Trading Company Limited and its Managing Director, Mr Patrick Ilo before a Federal High Court in Lagos claiming

the sum of N10,062,643,928.72 and $5,247,693.82 plus interest at the rate of 27% per annum and N20 million as cost of instituting the said legal action against Petrocam Trading Company and its Managing Director.

8. Sterling Bank has announced plans to change its current operating structure to a holding company structure. Asue Ighodalo, Chairman, Sterling Bank Plc, disclosed this at the bank’s annual general meeting held last week in Lagos.

The new holding structure will group the commercial bank and its other subsidiaries under a Holding Company (HoldCo). Three Nigerian Banks currently operate a Holdco structure and they are FBNH, FCMB and Stanbic IBTC.

9. Nigerian Breweries has been accused of deceiving Nigerians over claims that its Malt drink, Amstel Malta has low sugar.

Last week, a former VC of Benson Idahosa University (BIU), Prof. Ernest Izevbigie, filed a lawsuit against the company accusing it of allegedly inscribing the misleading information, “low sugar,” on the can of one of its non-alcoholic beverages, Amstel Malta.

According to the Professor, he discovered this after a routine medical test showed that his blood sugar level was high which was traced to his frequent consumption of Amstel Malta.

He then conducted a laboratory test which revealed that the drink contained more sugar than the company claimed in the inscription on the brand.

He is asking the court to order the company to tender a written apology to him as he had been injured by the alleged deception. He also asked the court to pronounce that the inscription on the product is misleading to the public.

10. Still on NB Plc, ICYDK, Gulder has a new look. The good old beer from the stable of Nigerian Breweries boasts of having a bolder black, gold but with a thin yellow neck foil.

The bolder infamous “Helmet of General Maximilian” now faces right (same as the main body of the bottle) with white curls and its metalized body label in a thin gold bound hexagonal border.

11. FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, makers of Peak and Three Crowns Milk, has announced its 2017 financial results.

The company revealed that full-year sales grew 13.2% to ₦140 billion from ₦123.75 billion in 2016. Also, the net profit declined by 13.5% to ₦12 billion from ₦13.8 billion in 2016.

The company attributed the 13.5% drop in its net profit to a fire incident at their evaporated milk factory in 2017 which reduced its production and required the company to import high volume of evaporated milk to cushion the gap from the resulting fire incident.

The company also noted that it imported ₦96.7 billion worth of dairy raw materials, while ₦16.2 billion or 16.7% was procured locally due to the challenges it faced during the year.

12. Rise Fund, the impact fund run by private equity group TPG Growth, has announced its first investment in Africa with a $47.5m deal to acquire an unspecified stake in Kenyan digital payments firm, Cellulant.

According to Rise Fund, the deal is the largest involving a fintech company that does business only in Africa which also included Endeavour Catalyst, Satya Capital, and Velocity Capital.

Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria, in its bid to boost its financial inclusion drive, granted a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) license to Cellulant Nigeria Limited. PSSPs are the companies that make up the underlying e-Payment infrastructure in Nigeria.

The license will enable banks, online merchants, payment processors, retailers, government agencies and consumers connect to Cellulant’s payment infrastructure to meet their electronic payment needs.

13. Quickhelp, an acclaimed “first of its kind directory service in Nigeria” launched in Lagos last week. The AI driven application helps its users find businesses, check traffic and perform other tasks when they query the app on their phones or websites.

Quickhelp leverages on Artificial Intelligence (AI), to connect users with businesses which have “duly registered telephone numbers of businesses and service providers” in their database.

So basically, like a directory, you tell the app, “I want food in Lekki” and then it connects you to the closest food joint around you including their contact details.

On how they intend to make money from this, Mr. Tosin Odubela, CEO and co-founder Quickhelp Nigeria, explained that they don’t charge for the service as it is still at the introductory stage but will monetise when the intended user target is reached.

This is @Nairametrics Newsletter BTU by @BluechipTechNG.

14. Paga joined the savings bandwagon following an announcement by its Founder and CEO, Tayo Oviosu. Paga launched a savings option for its platform allowing its users to save money at an interest rate of 4%.

According to its CEO, “We formally moved into digital financial services with our first product: a transaction savings wallet! Our goal is simple: "

we want to leverage our agent network and digital platforms to deliver financial services to all Nigerians and do so in partnership with banks and other financial institutions." EOQ

Everyone seems to be in on the savings game and it’s obvious that there is a huge arbitrage opportunity which Fintech companies can leverage.

This is perhaps a winner takes all space and I reckon hundreds of millions of naira will have to be spent on campaigns and promotions if they are to get a chunk of the N1.6 trillion in cash currently out of banking circulation.

You might want to read our analysis of this development here.

nairametrics.com/paga-eureka-an…

15. Zinox explained the reason why they have not disclosed the cost of the Konga acquisition, while also denying that they acquired the company for $10 million.

According to Zinnox, “the company is not yet at liberty to share the figures since the former owners of Konga including Naspers and several others"

who would want their boards and shareholders to approve the publication of the deal’s details before going public with the declaration of the figures.” EOQ

And by the way, Zinox reports it has become the first local Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to achieve the status of Platinum Technology Partner by Intel Corporation. By attaining the status of Platinum Technology Provider,

Zinox will enjoy enhanced technical support from Intel, which will further strengthen its leadership position in Sub-Saharan Africa’s ICT landscape.

16. Dangote Group has been granted a franchise by the Peugeot of France Groupe to construct and operate an assembly plant in Nigeria.

The new assembly plant by Dangote-Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited (DPAN) is a joint venture between Dangote Industries Limited, the Kaduna State Government, and Peugeot of France PSA Groupe.

This is coming after Dangote group made an initial ₦11 billion bid for majority stake in Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) from the Asset Management Company of Nigeria AMCON, an exercise which has remained unresolved for more than a year.

Dangote group has now gone to invite tenders from members of the public for the construction of a new Peugeot Assembly plant to be located at Dutse, .

along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, about 25 kilometres away from the present location of PAN Limited assembly plant in Kakuri industrial zone of Kaduna

17. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $100 million senior loan to Indorama Eleme Fertilizer & Chemicals Limited.

According to a release by the bank, the new intervention follows a previous loan extended to Indorama Fertilizer in 2013 for the commissioning of another urea fertilizer plant with a production capacity of 1.4 million tons per annum.

The completion of the plant in 2016 helped turn the country from a net fertilizer importer to a self-sufficient producer, and now a net exporter of fertilizer.

The new loan will be used to support the company’s plans to double its fertilizer production from 1.4 million tons of urea to 2.8 million tons per annum.

18. Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc last week announced a strategic partnership with Corteva Agriscience, the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont.

The partnership will see both companies work together towards the development of a special kind of maize hybrid seed for the Nigerian market.

Both companies will work “together on key aspects of the maize value chain in Nigeria”, with focus on capacity building and knowledge transfer.

They will also be focussing on the promotion of modern farming methods, and the need for improved and quality outputs: seeds and crop protection.

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