Author: Marketforces Africa

Seplat Energy Completion of Mobil Acquisition Credit Positive –Fitch Fitch Ratings views Seplat Energy Plc’s completion of the acquisition of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU) as beneficial for the former’s business profile but neutral for its rating due to the constraint of Nigeria’s country ceiling of ‘B-’. Seplat announced the completion of the acquisition of MNPU assets on 12 December 2024 for cash of USD800 million, including a USD128 million deposit paid by Seplat in 2022. The transaction was funded by a USD350 million drawdown of the revolving credit facility, a new USD300 million advanced payment facility with ExxonMobil, and…

Honeywell Flour Plc recorded a strong price uptick in the equities market as investors increased their positions in the food company’s shares amidst its free float compliance issue.

Eterna Plc Gains 32% on Renew Interest in Oil Stock Downstream oil and gas company Eterna Plc was among top gainers in the equities market on the back of renewed interest in oil stocks. According to data from the Nigerian Exchange, Eterna share price rose by 32.4% week on week to settle at N29.45% on Friday, from N22.25 at the beginning of the trading session in the week. This price uptick followed its latest earnings forecast for the first quarter of 2025 operations submitted to the Nigerian Exchange. Eterna Plc latest positive price movement lifted the downstream oil and Gas…

MRS Oil Rises 36% after Q1 Earnings Forecast MRS Oil Nigeria Plc attracted investors’ attention in the stock market after it forecasted N1.515 billion profit for first quarter of 2025. According information from the Nigerian Exchange, NGX, the oil stock increased to N180 per share on Friday after a rush to get in by alpha seekers. The oil stock picked up from N132, and rallied all throughout the week as demand heated up. The strong price appreciation nudged MRS Oil Nigeria Plc market value to N61.718 billion, up by 36.4% over the last five trading session in the equities…

Naira Sinks, CBN Double Down Forex Market Interventions The naira lost against the US dollar in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) despite increased FX interventions by the monetary authority to stabilise the rate. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) doubled down FX market interventions, starting from the beginning of the week to Thursday. The move was in continuation of an effort that started the previous week to ensure that the exchange rate at year meet target. Previous week, the CBN defended the naira three times in the FX market, selling about $125 million to authorised dealer banks at lower…

Moody’s Places Bidvest on Review for Downgrade over Access Bank Deal Moody’s Ratings has placed on review for downgrade the ratings of Bidvest Bank Limited amidst acquisition deal by its parent company with Access Bank Plc, a Nigerian lender with lesser capacity. In the rating note, Moody’s said it is set to downgrade Bidvest Ba2 domestic-currency long-term issuer rating, the Aa2.za national scale domestic-currency long-term issuer rating, the P-1.za national scale short-term issuer rating, the ba3 Adjusted Baseline Credit Assessment and the b2 BCA. At the same time, analysts said they have affirmed the Not Prime domestic-currency short-term issuer rating…

Afreximbank, Ecobank to Simplify Trade, Compliance for African businesses African Export-Import Bank (afreximbank) and Ecobank Group have embarked on a collaboration aimed at simplifying trade and compliance for businesses in Africa by integrating Ecobank’s Single Market Trade Hub and Afreximbank’s MANSA Digital Repository Platform. With the collaboration, African businesses will benefit from seamless shared services across the two platforms, with users of the Single Market Trade Hub able to easily leverage MANSA’s comprehensive database for efficient know-thy-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD) checks while MANSA platform users would, in turn, be able to directly connect to the Single Market…

GCR affirms TrustBanc Holdings Ratings with Stable Outlook GCR Ratings has affirmed TrustBanc Holdings Limited’s national scale long and short-term Issuer ratings of BBB (NG) and A3 (NG) respectively, with a stable outlook. The rating affirmation on TrustBanc Holdings Limited’s balances a sustained strong financial leverage ratio, stable funding structure, adequate liquidity and good risk position against modest competitive position which is constrained by a low earnings profile relative to peers, the rating note reads. According to GCR rating note, TrustBanc, a diversified financial services group, operates asset management, microfinance banking, capital management and structured finance. “While growth was noted…

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) All-Share index (ASI) has declined during intraday trading session due to early profit-taking activities. Sell side actors resume action on oil and banking stocks, while there is also moderate sell pressure on the consumer goods index.

Riskoff Sentiment on Nigeria Bonds Provokes Yield Surge The average yield on Nigerian government bonds spiked due to risk off sentiment that follow inflation surge. Bonds supply has eased ahead of 2025 borrowing plan. The Debt Management Office is expected to open fresh bond auction sales next year as part of efforts to finance Nigeria’s huge budget deficit. The last auction for the year has been conducted where the authority reopened 5- and 7-year bonds to investors. And it was significantly oversubscribed, though demand appeared to have been tempered as inflation weighted on naira assets. Further to weak sentiment, trading…