Top 10 performing stocks

 

E-TRANSACT led the top  10 performers last week with 13.17 per cent or N0.32 increase, closing at N2.75 from N2.43 at the beginning of the week. NEM Insurance followed with 7.69 per cent or N0.05 appreciation, closing at N0.70 from N0.65.

Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc emerged third on the list, rising by 6.25 per cent or N15.00 to close at N255.00 from N240.00; Axamansard closed as the fourth most active stock, rising by five per cent or N0.13 to close at N2.73 from N2.60 per share, while UACN Property Development Co. Plc emerged fifth on the list with 4.99 per cent or N0.37 price increase, closing at N7.79 from N7.42 per share.

The rest were Forte Oil, which rose by 4.89 per cent or N11.19 to close at N239.99 from N228.80; Portland Paints and Products Plc advanced by 4.87 per cent or N0.20 to close at N4.31 from N4.11; Paints and Coatings Manufacturers Plc went up by 4.84 per cent or N0.06 to close at N1.30 from N1.24; Custodain and Allied Plc appreciated by 4.68 per cent or N0.19 to close at N4.25 from N4.06, while Cutix plc closed as the last on the list with 4.38 per cent or N0.07 price appreciation to close at N1.67 from N1.60 per share.

E-transact, which topped the list, recently entered into partnership with Abuja Electricity Distribution Company for the sale of electricity and revenue collection through electronic power purchase option. The partnership will allow consumers to buy electricity units using payment channels like inter-switch, credit-cards, ATMs, PoS Machines or mobile money platforms via electronic wallets on mobile phones. Last year, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) slammed N2.7 million on the company for late filling of its 2013 full year financial result.

For the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, the company recorded 107.1 per cent increase in profit before tax to N280.22 million compared to N135.31 million posted in the same quarter in 2014. Its profit after tax grew by 91 per cent to N168.13 million as against N88.01 million in the previous quarter, while the company’s revenue at N2.08 billion was 29.3 per cent increase over N1.61 billion recorded in 2014. E-transact had assured investors of its desire to consolidate on profitability with new relationships, enhancing and deepening existing ones and exploring new partnerships locally and internationally.

eTranzact is the first online real-time payment system that allows account holders to pay for goods and services purchased from merchants, transfer funds to any bank account, cell phone, any card, pay bills and order products.

Like eTransact, N.E.M Insurance, which closed as the second most active stock within the week, got N300,000 (Three hundred thousand) as fine from the Exchange for late filing of its 2014 full year financial result. For the first quarter ended March 31, 2015, NEM grew gross premium written by 10.73 per cent from N5.81 million in 2014 to N6.43 million. Its profit before taxation rose to N1.87 million from N1.38 million, representing 35.72 per cent increase, while profit after tax at N1.58 million was 54.14 per cent growth over N1.09 million recorded in the same period in 2014. The net assets stood at N7.48 million as against N5.90 million posted in the first quarter in 2014, indicating 26.81 per cent growth.

Seplat announced an increase in investment in natural gas and crude oil processing and development. Specifically, the company said it has so far invested 300 million dollars in gas business, noting that the investment would boost its revenue and increase shareholders value in 2015 financial year.

The company has been recording decline in earnings. Its 2015 first quarter (Q1) pretax profit declined by 33.4 per cent to N4.83 billion from N7.25 billion posted a year earlier. Profit after tax (PAT) also dipped by 32.8 per cent to N4.87 billion from N7.25 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2014. However, its revenue grew from N22.72 billion in the Q1 2014 to N25.56 billion in the review period, indicating a growth of 12.5 percent. Seplat was the first oil and gas upstream firm to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Source: Business Vanguard-By NKIRUKA NNOROM

OPEC FORECASTS RISE IN OIL PRICE TO $80 IN 2020

 

THE Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, said that oil price will rise gradually to $80 a barrel in 2020 as supply growth outside the group weakens, a slower recovery than several member nations have said they need.

The average selling price of OPEC’s crude is expected to rise by about $5 annually to 2020 from $55 this year.

“It’s much harder for OPEC to lift prices” after the revolution of U.S. shale oil, said Bjarne Schieldrop, Oslo-based chief commodities analyst, which forecasts Brent crude at $73 by the end of the decade. “Eighty dollars by 2020 is pretty close to consensus view.”

The price of crude has tumbled more than 50 percent in the past year as OPEC followed Saudi Arabia’s strategy of defending its share of the global market against competitors like U.S. shale oil. While OPEC and the International Energy Agency, IEA, expect growth in global supply to slow as low prices bite, Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated predicts that a persistent glut will keep crude low for the next 15 years.

Production from nations outside OPEC is expected to be at 58.2 million barrels a day in 2017, 1 million lower than previously forecast by OPEC. “The impact low prices is most apparent on tight oil, which is more price reactive than other liquids sources. Supply reductions in U.S. and Canada from 2014 to 2016 are clearly revealed,” Goldman Sachs said. While demand from China, Russia and OPEC members will grow more slowly than forecast a year ago, developing nations with still account for the bulk of the expansion.

High onshore tax:   The predictions come as the Chairperson of Famfa Oil Limited, Mrs. Folorunso Alakija, said that Nigeria’s 85 percent tax on onshore crude oil production is dissuading local investors from taking over assets from international oil companies, IOCs.

Famfa had sought to acquire stakes in onshore oil fields, but was deterred by high tax regime. Onshore producers pay 30 percent corporate tax and 55 percent tax on petroleum profit, while offshore producers who bought stakes in the 1990s are exempted from corporate tax and pay 50 percent profit tax.

“The 85 percent that those who are onshore have to pay is going to be too high for indigenous companies to be able to stand on their own two feet,” said Alakija, who has a fortune of $1.8 billion, according to an estimate by Forbes magazine.

 

Source: Vanguard Business. By Sebastine Obasi, with agency report

NIGERIA: NSE WEEKLY REPORT- TRANS NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC RULES THE MARKET, GUINNESS FOLLOWED.

 

NIGERIAN STOCK EXCHANGE: STOCK MARKET WEEKLY REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2015. 

For Further Inquiries Contact: Market Operations Department

OIL AND GAS: GE in $1billion Nigeria technology transfer bid

 

Traditionally, General Electric (GE), as the name suggests, has huge interests in the power (electricity) sector. The multinational has a subsidiary (GE Power and Water) wholly devoted to power generation, transmission and distribution across the world.

It manufactures gas engines, gas turbines, wind turbines, steam turbines, generators, nuclear reactors, etc. GE is a big player in the Nigerian power sector where there is dire need of electricity. The subsidiary is also in charge of the conglomerate’s water and process technologies.

But beyond the GE area of core competence, it equally has interests in virtually every area of human needs. The American giant has interests in aviation, capital, healthcare, home and business, transportation, etc, with a subsidiary in charge of each interest.  GE’s latest leap in Nigeria is into oil and gas.  Under the auspices of GE Oil and Gas, the leap is not into the exploration or exploitation of the crude, but into the oil servicing sub-sector where GE is currently into the refurbishment of the  Christmas Trees subsea production equipment at its Onne, Port Harcourt, Rivers State site. The site occupies over 3,500 sq. meters of land with standard equipment installed.

Officials of GE Oil and Gas described the refurbishment of the subsea production equipment as an innovation in this part of the world as it is the only organisation in sub-Sahara Africa to do so.  In essence, before GE Oil and Gas opened the Onne site, oil firms in need of their subsea production equipment refurbishment had to do so abroad, spending huge sums of hard currency in the process.

The officials claimed to have deployed at least two refurbished Christmas Trees recently. Meanwhile, refurbished Christmas Trees come nearly as new subsea equipment as they have a lifespan of between 15 and 20 years.

The GE Oil and Gas officials, Uzochi Nwogwu, Chief Operating Officer, West Africa; Kenny Yeats, Operations Leader/Regional Services Manager; and Sunny Ojieh, Local Content Manager, West Africa, spoke during a facility tour of the Onne facility by select journalists.

According to Nwogwu, “Onne represents our local content footprint in the oil and gas sector with giant strides in job creation, training and capacity building and supplier development”. The COO explained that the Onne site provides jobs for 600 hires and service trainees, representing 93% of local workforce and seven percent expatriate. He added that the expatriates are trainers while locals carry out the work 100%”. Indeed, preparatory to the Onne facility, GE Oil and Gas recruited 14 Nigerian graduates of engineering, sent them on a 24-month subsea-based training in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Brazil.

The trainees, who began the program in June 2013, have since completed the exercise and form the core-technical staff of the facility. The GE Oil and Gas officials told journalists that about $2.4 million was spent training the Nigerian graduates.

Speaking on the rationale behind the training programme, Yeats, said: “Investing in Africa’s future leaders is a big focus for GE because we believe that when you equip people with necessary tools and empower them with specific skills plus techniques, they would be able to deliver sterling performance”.

Nwogwu expressed similar sentiment when he said: “The graduate engineering program is designed to have hands-on experience in subsea production equipment and learn about all the components and how these are assembled. The content is structured to relate to the real world of subsea products and engineering, helping the trainees to connect the dots.

“The trainees are assigned mentors in the workshop who help them to learn and see more about our products. This has helped them to gain practical exposure, simulation experience, product knowledge and system understanding”.

Whereas the sheer size of the Onne facility, the scope of work and the funds sunk are mind-boggling, the GE Oil and Gas officials said it will be a tip of the iceberg of the multinational’s operations in Nigeria when another facility in the pipeline in Calabar, Cross River State is completed.

This is understandable to the extent that the Onne site refurbishes subsea production equipment while the Calabar facility will manufacture. The manufacturing facility will create more opportunities for Nigeria as it has the capacity to create 250 direct jobs and estimated 2,000 indirect operations. Being established in collaboration with Calabar Tech, the GE Oil and Gas officials boasted that the Calabar site will lay the foundation for knowledge and technology transfer to Nigerian sub-suppliers, academic institutions, among others.

Ahead of the take-off of the project, next year (2016), the officials said 15 Nigerian engineering graduates, representing the first batch of trainees, were sent abroad for training in February 2014. The graduates are made up of three manufacturing engineers and 12 technicians.

“By 2018, this state-of-the-art facility will be a hub for GE’s industrial businesses including turbomachinery, fabrication of subsea wellheads, power generation, aero, distributed power and repair service”, Nwogwu, the COO, GE Oil and Gas, West Africa, said.

The facility, according to him, will include a training centre for technical and leadership development.

“We have signed an MoU with Calabar Tech with commitment to invest in capacity/capability build. GE is investing $2million to support building upgrade, curriculum development, teacher training and equipment upgrade”, he added.

On the financial outlay of the GE Oil and Gas in Nigeria, Nwogwu said the multinational will spend over a billion dollars on the Calabar project, among other projects in the country, over the next five years.

By Wale Akinola

Source: Business Vanguard