By Dipo Olowookere
A company based in Canada, Globevest Capital Partners Limited, has acquired a 55.04 per cent stake in Smarts Products Nigeria Plc.
The Canadian firm bought the shares from the acting Chairman of the organisation, Mr Aderonmu Ademola Abiola.
The transaction, which involved the transfer of 24,768,579 ordinary shares to Globevest, was worth nearly N5.0 million (precisely N4,953,715) as the stocks were sold at 20 kobo per unit.
Business Post reports that shares of Smart Products Nigeria closed flat on Monday, May 17, 2021, at 26 kobo per unit.
The audited financial statements of Smart Products Nigeria for 2020 showed that Mr Abiola held a total of 24,783,579 shares of the firm, representing 55.07 per cent. This means with the same of 24,768,579 stocks to the new foreign investor, he still has 15,000 units left.
Globevest Capital is not the only foreign company with a stake in Smart Products Nigeria as an English firm, Smurfit Overseas, controls a 20.00 per cent stake, representing 9,000,000 units, in the organisation.
About the new investor
The new investor, Globevest Capital, was founded in 2002 by Mr Patrick Proulx, who seized at the time an opportunity to create a private portfolio management business focused almost exclusively on risk management, which was virtually non-existent in the early 2000s.
He started his career in 1996 as an actuary at Sobeco Ernst & Young, where he evaluated pension funds and later honed his skills as a financial analyst at Hydro-Québec with a variety of financial studies on major investment projects and financial products (including derivatives used in brokerage and hedging transactions), accompanied by the energy product brokerage portfolio management.
He joined the management team of Desjardins Risk Management Division in 2001, where he served as an advisor and analyst. His primary tasks involved operational and market risk modelling with state-of-the-art financial techniques.
Smart Products Nigeria Profile
Smart Products Nigeria was formerly known as Associated Press Limited. It was incorporated on January 11, 1966, as a private limited liability company and commenced operation as a legal entity immediately.
In 1987, the firm changed its name Smurfit Print Nigeria Limited and was subsequently converted to a public limited liability company in 1991 which made it change its name to Smurfit Print Nigeria Plc and later to Smart Products Nigeria on September 25, 2005.
Company’s financials
In the 2020 fiscal year, the company recorded a slip in total revenue to N49.4 million from N49.8 million in 2019, while the personnel expenses dropped to N7.2 million from N7.8 million, with the profit before tax rising to N9.7 million from N8.0 million and the net profit at N7.4 million as against N5.4 million achieved a year earlier.
As a result of the profit recorded in the year, the board proposed the payment of a dividend of 10 kobo to shareholders, amounting to N4.5 million, the same amount paid in 2019.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka