Business Eye

Cadbury promises better returns, to pay dividend in 2012

The Chairman of Cadbury Nigeria plc, Mr. Atedo Peterside, has assured that barring any unforeseen circumstance, shareholders of the company would be rewarded with dividend payout in the current financial year as the management has successfully navigated the company out of the negative zone.

                Addressing shareholders at the 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM), in Lagos, Peterside stated that the management was able to pull out of the N3.5 billion negative reserves in 2010 to about N2.2...

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Issues arising from the Access Bank acquisition of Intercontinental Bank

The recent public hearing on the near collapse of the Nigerian Capital Market has exposed startling facts, probably manipulations in the acquisition of Intercontinental Bank by Access Bank.

The Commissioner (Operations) of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Daisy Ekineh, who confirmed it at the public hearing, told the Ad Hoc Committee that Access Bank raised N158 billion from the market in a public issue but utilized only N100 billion and kept N58 billion as shareholders funds. She add...

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Years later, the real festival and a crash

It was about October of 1994. I had just qualified as a stockbroker and began trading as a rookie. Pastor Hayford Alile was then the DG of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and Ndi Okereke head of quotations and Mr Oladejo was the regular chairman of call over (the one who presides over trading on the floor).

                Prices of stocks were then capped with little room for upward or downward movements. You had to present a convincing argument to the call over chairman on why you want to move a pr...

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Nigerian stock exchange wants oil majors to list

Foreign oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp should have secondary share listings in Nigeria and planned new energy laws could push them to agree, the stock exchange regulator said.

                Speaking at the Reuters Africa investment summit, Arunma Oteh, Director General of Nigeria's Security and Exchange Commission, said 80 percent of government revenues come from the oil industry but it makes up only 5 percent of the stock market.

                By persu...

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The Capital Market and the crisis of confidence

In the last few years, the fortunes of the capital market and by implication of the economy and investors, have dwindled. From a market capitalization of over N14 trillion, to as low as less than N4 trillion, it was indeed a great decline. In spite of all the reforms and measures, investors have continued to lose capital appreciation and dividends and in some cases, the values of their stock holdings have been completely wiped out.

                In an article as an investor sometime ago, now pr...

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Stocks: A glimmer of hope

After a poor first quarter (Q1), the Nigerian capital market has made  a  significant recovery in the first month of the second quarter, thereby raising investors’ hopes of ending the current year with smiles. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index, which is the benchmark gauge for the performance of the market rose by 7.1 percent due to an unprecedented bull run witnessed in the market.

                The index had closed the Q1 with a decline of 0.38 percent, thereby sending shivers...

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Market probe: Behind the veil

Probes of whatever form or shape can hardly stir any Nigerian since they have become of late, sources of comic scenes on televisions and striking headlines for the newspapers. During the military era, Nigerians were always apprehensive of any probe since the outcomes were often devastating and persons indicted in such probes were either dismissed from the public service or retired. Since the nation returned to democratic rule, Nigerians have lost count of the number of probes instituted by the e...

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Harvest time for investors on the Nigerian bourse

Two months into the new year, the Nigerian stock market is still performing sluggishly contrary to high expectations that it would recover significantly this year. A growth of about 14 percent has been projected for the market this year. However, by the third week of February, the market was 1.5 percent lower than its opening level for the year.

                The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index has lost about 1.5 percent as most retail and local investors continued to stay away fr...

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Stock Market in 2012: Stronger regulation, brighter prospects

Investors in the Nigerian stock market have mixed reactions on their experiences in 2011 as the stock market returned an aggregate negative of 16.3 per cent in 2011. The investments of some investors declined by as high as 80 percent in that year alone. Yet, some investors smiled home with growth that were as high as 180 percent.

                This implies that some investors would tell you the market was not favourable in 2011 while others would tell you that amid the challenges, the harvest w...

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Stocks: Another bad year for many investors

The Nigerian stock market had in January 2011, opened on a positive note with a gain of over 8 percent. Similarly, it ended in December 2011on another positive note, recording a marginal growth of over 2 percent. However, the growth in the first and last months of the year was not enough to save the market from its third decline within four years.

                At the end of 2011, the market recorded a decline of about 16 percent, which came to many analysts and investors as a surprise given th...

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