Economy
Oando Shareholders Stay Solidly Behind Tinubu, Retain Him as GCE
By Dipo Olowookere
Hundreds of shareholders of Oando Plc, who attended the 40th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company have expressed confidence in the leadership style the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Wale Tinubu, and his team.
In view of this, the shareholders, at the AGM held on Monday, September 11, 2017 at the Ibom Hall in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, voted unanimously to retain Mr Tinubu and the Board of Directors.
Chairman of the board, Oba Michael Gbadebo, noted that the firm was going through a period of restructuring resulting from the prevailing global crisis in the oil and gas sector.
He added that despite the challenges, the company was on course towards becoming Africa’s most respected oil and gas company.
“As we pursue our vision to be the most respected African oil and gas company, we are experiencing a period of restructuring for sustained growth.
“We will continue on our aggressive reduction of debt to create a platform for long term profitability while driving growth via our dollar denominated upstream and downstream trading businesses.
“Cost reduction will remain key to us and we will ensure disciplined execution of our corporate initiatives towards achieving long term profitability and guaranteed returns for all shareholders,” the respected Egba monarch said at the event.
In their comments, the shareholders, who unanimously adopted the company’s 2016 audited report, raised concerns regarding the operations of the firm in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry, as well as its finances and debt profile.
However, Mr Tinubu, while responding to these concerns, thanked the shareholders for their continued support of the company in the challenging times and assured them that the management team will focus on sustaining the company’s profitability and ensuring returns to shareholders.
“As your management team, we assure you that our main focus will continue to be geared towards sustaining your company’s profitability and ensuring adequate return for you our esteemed shareholders.
“Our story has always been one of resilience, innovation and growth, and I assure you that we are fully committed towards positioning your company towards sustained growth moving forward,” Mr Tinubu said, while the excited shareholders chanted “progress, progress.”
On the company’s debt profile, the Oando Group CEO noted that its facilities with banks had been restructured to medium term facilities, with the plan to pay the interest in the first few years and principal in the later years.
“Let me bring to your attention that the $900 million debt position we had in 2014 following the acquisition of ConocoPhilips has been substantially reduced by over $600 million in just under three years. Our current dollar liability stands at around $300 million,” Mr Tinubu said.
Regarding related-party transactions, Mr Tinubu noted that Oando was one of the pioneers of full disclosure on related-party transactions in Nigeria and the company has an extensive policy on it; a policy that has been developed using international global standards as a benchmark.
He said, “If anybody linked with the management of the company is doing any kind of business for or with the company, we are obliged to disclose and we have constantly disclosed.”
“Our related-party policy is on our website. It is detailed and extensive, it is benchmarked against global best practice and it is overseen by the governance committee of the Board, which is an independent committee,” he pointed out.
At the meeting, Oando shareholders voted to re-appoint Ernst & Young as the auditors of the company, while Dr Joseph Asaolu, Mr Olusegun Oguntoye and Mr Edah Erinevere were elected to the audit committee of the company’s board.
Despite speculations of major disruptions at the AGM, nothing of the sort occurred. The AGM went smoothly without disruption, more importantly it was successfully concluded.
There was a 15-minute protest outside the venue however this was carried out by non-shareholders as all shareholders could have entered the venue to raise their legitimate concerns to management and the board.
Speculation is that the protesters were dubious characters who had been asked to disrupt the AGM. The protesting crowd dispersed after key shareholder representatives advised that if they had legitimate concerns that they should officially write to the management of the company expressing their concerns.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The federal government, the 36 states of the federation and the 774 local government areas have received N1.727 trillion from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for December 2024.
The funds were disbursed to the three tiers of government from the revenue generated by the nation in November 2024.
At the December meeting of FAAC held in Abuja, it was stated that the amount distributed comprised distributable statutory revenue of N455.354 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N585.700 billion, Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL) revenue of N15.046 billion and Exchange Difference revenue of N671.392 billion.
According to a statement signed on Friday by the Director of Press and Public Relations for FAAC, Mr Bawa Mokwa, the money generated last month was about N3.143 trillion, with N103.307 billion used for cost of collection and N1.312 trillion for transfers, interventions and refunds.
It was disclosed that gross statutory revenue of N1.827 trillion was received compared with the N1.336 trillion recorded a month earlier.
The statement said gross revenue of N628.972 billion was available from VAT versus N668.291 billion in the preceding month.
The organisation stated that last month, oil and gas royalty and CET levies recorded significant increases, while excise duty, VAT, import duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and EMTL decreased considerably.
As for the sharing, FAAC disclosed that from the N1.727 trillion, the central government got N581.856 billion, the states received N549.792 billion, the councils took N402.553 billion, while the benefiting states got N193.291 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
From the N585.700 billion VAT earnings, the national government got N87.855 billion, the states received N292.850 billion and the local councils were given N204.995 billion.
Also, from the N455.354 billion distributable statutory revenue, the federal government was given N175.690 billion, the states got N89.113 billion, the local governments had N68.702 billion, and the benefiting states received N121.849 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
In addition, from the N15.046 billion EMTL revenue, FAAC shared N2.257 billion to the federal government, disbursed N7.523 billion to the states and transferred N5.266 billion to the local councils.
Further, from the N671.392 billion Exchange Difference earnings, it gave central government N316.054 billion, the states N160.306 billion, the local government areas N123.590 billion, and the oil-producing states N71.442 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange recorded a 0.65 per cent gain on Friday, December 13, boosted by three equities admitted on the trading platform.
On the last trading session of the week, Okitipupa Plc appreciated by N2.70 to settle at N29.74 per share versus Thursday’s closing price of N27.04 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc added N2.49 to end the session at N42.85 per unit compared with the previous day’s N40.36 per unit, and Afriland Properties Plc gained 50 Kobo to close at N16.30 per share, in contrast to the preceding session’s N15.80 per share.
Consequently, the market capitalisation added N6.89 billion to settle at N1.062 trillion compared with the preceding day’s N1.055 trillion and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) gained 19.66 points to wrap the session at 3,032.16 points compared with 3,012.50 points recorded in the previous session.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors increased by 171.6 per cent to 1.2 million units from the 447,905 units recorded a day earlier, but the value of shares traded by the market participants declined by 19.3 per cent to N2.4 million from the N3.02 million achieved a day earlier, and the number of deals went down by 14.3 per cent to 18 deals from 21 deals.
At the close of business, Geo-Fluids Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with a turnover of 1.7 billion units worth N3.9 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with the sale of 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.3 million units sold for N5.3 million.
In the same vein, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 108.7 million units for N89.2 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with a turnover of 297.3 million units worth N5.3 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the United States Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by N1.50 or 0.09 per cent to close at N1,533.00/$1 on Friday, December 13 versus the N1,534.50/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.
The local currency has continued to benefit from the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) this month.
The implementation of the forex system comes with diverse implications for all segments of the financial markets that deal with FX, including the rebound in the value of the Naira across markets.
The system instantly reflects data on all FX transactions conducted in the interbank market and approved by the CBN.
Market analysts say the publication of real-time prices and buy-sell orders data from this system has lent support to the Naira in the official market and tackled speculation.
In the official market yesterday, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling by N12.58 to wrap the session at N1,942.19/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,954.77/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N2.44 to close at N1,612.85/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,610.41/€1.
At the black market, the Nigerian Naira appreciated against the greenback on Friday by N30 to sell for N1,650/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,680/$1.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely positive as investors banked on recent signals, including fresh support from US President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, as well as interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB).
Ripple (XRP) added 7.3 per cent to sell at $2.49, Binance Coin (BNB) rose by 3.5 per cent to $728.28, Cardano (ADA) expanded by 2.4 per cent to trade at $1.11, Litecoin (LTC) increased by 2.3 per cent to $122.56, Bitcoin (BTC) gained 1.9 per cent to settle at $101,766.17, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.2 per cent to $0.4064, Solana (SOL) soared by 0.7 per cent to $226.15 and Ethereum (ETH) advanced by 0.6 per cent to $3,925.35, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
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