Finabiz: July 2014

Saturday, 19 July 2014

Forbes Media sold to Chinese group Integrated Whale

After 97 years of family ownership, Forbes Media has announced it has sold a majority stake in the company to a Hong Kong-based group of international investors.

Forbes Media - which includes Forbes magazine - was sold to Integrated Whale Media Investments for an undisclosed sum.

The Forbes family said it would still have a "significant" stake.

Steve Forbes will

Nigeria’s naira is seen stuck in a tight range in the coming week, drawing support from possible dollar flows from offshore investors and foreign energy companies selling dollars to banks.

The local currency has traded around 161.90-162.70 against the dollar in the last two weeks on support from consistent greenback flows from oil companies’ month-end dollar sales and inflows from offshore investors buying local debt.

The naira traded at 161.85 to the dollar on Thursday, compared with its 161.90 close the previous day, and traders see no major change in the value of the currency in the near term.

“Market is dollar liquid to support the present demand from importers, we are not expecting very much change from the present value of the naira as long as

Apple scolded by Europe over in-app purchase protections

Apple has been criticised by the European Commission for not offering any "concrete and immediate" plans to stop users being misled by "free" apps.

Many popular apps are free to download, but are designed to tempt users to pay for in-game enhancements - often allowing for quicker progression.

The Commission is now forcing Apple and Google, the biggest vendors of apps, to make the "true cost" of games clear.

But it singled out Apple for not making a commitment to change."Regrettably, no concrete and immediate solutions have been made by Apple to date to address the concerns linked in particular to payment authorisation," the Commission said in a statement.

"Apple has

Fitch Ratings has assigned Seven Energy International Limited (Seven Energy) an expected Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘B-(EXP)’ with a Stable Outlook. The expected IDR takes into account a USD255m equity placement and assumes a successful issue of dollar-denominated notes and repayment of certain existing debt.

Fitch has simultaneously assigned Seven Energy Finance Ltd’s proposed secured notes an expected senior secured rating of ‘B-(EXP)’ and a ‘RR4′ Recovery Rating. The company plans to use proceeds from the notes to refinance some of its existing indebtedness and to improve its capital structure and liquidity. The assignment of a final IDR is subject to the

Markets watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has recommended a full competition inquiry into banks.

The provisional decision recommends a full-scale inquiry into the banking sector including the provision of current accounts and business lending.

The process will start with a consultation, and the CMA will take a final decision in the autumn.

The banking industry said it would co-operate with the review, but that changes were already underway.

Alex Chisholm, CMA chief executive, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was "vital" that the banking sector worked properly, which was why the full eighteen month investigation was being proposed.

"At the moment they don't seem to be

European flight safety body Eurocontrol says Ukrainian authorities have closed the airspace in the east of the country to all airline flights.

It said all flight plans that use routes in the area are being rejected.

It follows the crash of Malaysian airliner flight MH17 with 298 people on board, amid claims it was shot down.

Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region, a Department for Transport spokesperson said.

Flight MH17 was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it came down near the village of Grabovo.

Immediate measures

The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents more than 38,000 European pilots, said the route flown by the crashed Malaysian aircraft was "the most common route for flights from Europe to South East Asia."

Airline Emirates said its flight EK171 from Dubai

Most Asian shares saw falls on Friday after a Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 298 people crashed in east Ukraine on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia Airlines said flight MH17 was carrying a total 298 people, with 283 passengers including three infants, and 15 crew.

There were no signs of survivors at the scene of the crash near the village of Grabovo.

Japan's Nikkei 225 had fallen by more than 1% in morning trade in Tokyo.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell by 0.8% on opening, while China's Shanghai Composite was up 0.4% in morning trade.

Shares in Malaysia Airlines had fallen more than

Internet giant Google has reported a 22% jump in revenue during the second quarter period from March through June compared to a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $16bn (£9.4bn) and profits were up 6% to $3.4bn, said the firm in its earnings report.

Strong demand for Google's advertising helped boost revenues above expectations.

Google also announced chief business officer Nikesh Arora was leaving for SoftBank.

Mr Arora, who has

On Thursday, a Malaysia Airlines flight crashed in Ukraine and Israel began a ground invasion into the Gaza strip.

The Dow Jones index fell 161.39 points, or 0.94%, to 16,976.81, closing back below the symbolic threshold of 17,000.

The S&P 500 plunged 23.45 points or 1.18%, to 1,958.12, and the Nasdaq index dropped 62.52 points or 1.41% to 4,363.45.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 - a Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard crashed on the Ukrainian border near Russia.

That followed news earlier in the day

NIWA woos banks, insurers for water transport development

The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA is wooing the banking and financial sector to key into efforts at development of water transport infrastructure.

Disclosing this to Vanguard in Lagos, Managing Director of NIWA, Maryam Chiroma, said the Authority is desirous improving the sector to attract Nigerian to water transportation.

Chiroma explained that NIWA has concluded plans to bring operators in the financial sector to meet with their counterpart in the water transport industry in August.

The event which is expected to hold in Lagos according to the NIWA boss will also

President of the Shippers’ Association of Lagos State, Jonathen Nicol, has said that the two weeks traffic gridlock which grounded business activities in the port city cost the industry over N1.3 billion.

Speaking with Vanguard in Lagos, Nicol said that all sectors of the industry were affected aversely during the period of the traffic lock down.

The Shippers’ Association boss explained that for the period, the Nigeria Customs Service, Terminal Operators, Shipping Companies, Clearing agents, Shippers, truckers, amongst others did next to nothing and that definitely affected their revenue.

According to him, the traffic jammed “directly resulted in partial congestion and

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reiterated that the Bank’s modifications to the guidelines on the regulation of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) in Nigeria are aimed at conserving the country’s foreign reserves, among other objectives.

This position was made known by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency.

Addressing members of the Committee, Mr. Emefiele explained that modifications had to be made to the guidelines following observations that the current operations of BDCs in Nigeria had deviated from the objectives for which they were lisensed in the first place.

According to the CBN Governor,

Online retailer eBay reported profits of $676m (£395m) during the period from March to June, beating analyst expectations.

Shares in the company were up by more than 1.5% in trading after the US stock market closed.

Although revenue grew by 13% to $4.4bn, that was less than hoped.

"We had a challenging quarter with several distractions," said eBay in its earnings presentation, a reference to a data breach earlier in the quarter.

In May, eBay said as many as

Forty-one firms are currently bidding to supply embedded power to Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Disco), including Aggreko, one of the world’s leaders in the field, energy sources tell BusinessDay.

Eko Disco had earlier in a statement on its website, invited firms to bid for embedded power generation.

“EKEDC wishes to contract Embedded Generators to supply capacity and energy directly connected to its distribution network at 11kV and 33kV levels (“Embedded Generation”) to improve quality of supply to customers. Total capacity required in 2014 is approximately 500MW,” the statement said.

Embedded generation is the term used for any electricity generating plant that is connected to the regional electricity distribution networks.

Eko Disco has the capacity to

Microsoft is to cut up to 18,000 jobs marking the deepest cuts in the technology firm's 39-year history.

The bulk of the cuts, around 12,500, will be in its phone unit Nokia, which Microsoft bought in April, the firm said.

Microsoft pledged to cut $600m (£350.8m) per year in costs within 18 months of closing the acquisition.

The cuts are much more severe than the 6,000 initially expected.

Chief executive officer Satya Nadella, who took the helm in February, wants

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved contract worth N1.3 billion for the feasibility study of standard rail gauge system along six rail corridors in the country.

This was disclosed by Labaran Maku, the minister of information, while briefing journalists after the weekly FEC meeting, which was presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Maku noted that the rail corridors were identified under the 25 years strategic railway development policy of the Federal Government.

The minister briefed alongside Idris Umar, minister of transport, and Olusegun Aganga, minister of trade and industry.

Transport minister, explaining the awarded contract, noted that

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has called on the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to urgently address the growing concerns over the outrageous bills to consumers.

The Chamber also called for review of the concept of fixed charges.

In a parley with the media, the President of LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello, said there is need for NERC to urgently address the growing concerns over the outrageous bills to consumers as most SMEs spend considerable sum on payment for public power supply, adding that, often, these firms never get the power supply commensurate to payments made.

“The power situation is still a major problem for business across all sectors. Energy cost remains a major threat to business sustainability. Expenditure on diesel and other fuels continued to increase.

The power sector privatisation is yet to

Nigeria has moved to the second position on the rating of sovereign wealth funds in the world.

This follows the improved rating of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) as a sovereign wealth fund by the Linaburg-Maduell transparency index administered by the Sovereign Wealth Institute.

In the official statement announcing the second quarter 2014 ratings, the Institute singled out the NSIA for special mention stating that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has been upgraded to nine points out of a possible 10 from a score of 4 in the previous rankings.

This rating translates into a

Federal Reserve warns of overvalued social media stocks

The US Federal Reserve has warned of "stretched valuations" in social media and biotechnology firms as part of chair Janet Yellen's semi-annual report in front of Congress.

The warning sent US indexes down, with shares of social media firms such as Yelp plunging.

In prepared remarks, Ms Yellen also said that she thought the US economy continued to improve.

However, she warned of weakness in the housing market and slow wage growth.

In a separate monetary policy report released as part of the Fed's semi-annual testimony in front of Congress, the Fed wrote:

The Chairman, Car Dealers Association of Nigeria, FCT Chapter, Ajibola Adedoyin, says the hike in the importation tariff on cars can cause many dealers to close down their business.

Adedoyin who said this in an interview on Tuesday said this could be as a result of expected low patronage.

“The implementation of the New Automotive Industrial Policy Development Plan of the Federal Government, which advocated the hike in the tariff of imported cars, is being rushed by the government.

“It is a fact that the policy is very good and has long-term benefits.

“However, implementing the policy now will amount to rushing into it without consideration for its consequence in view of the present situation in the industry,’’ he said.

Adedoyin said

A new top-level internet domain for Scotland has been launched, allowing people to choose a .scot web or email address for the first time.

About 50 sites run by "launch pioneers" are expected to go live on Tuesday.

Among those who have signed up for a new domain are the Scottish government, referendum campaigners Yes Scotland and Better Together, WWF Scotland, NHS Scotland and Scouts Scotland.

International pioneers include the Louisiana Scots and the Clan Wallace.

The .scot domain is one of a number of new top-level domains that are becoming available this year, such as .wales, .london, .berlin and .NYC.

It was launched after

Corporate earnings, equity markets and growth prospects face downside risks as Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, over the weekend claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Lagos, says Damina Advisors, a frontier market-focused research firm.

“The presence of Boko Haram terrorist operations in Lagos means the fundamental risks to the Nigerian economic outlook in 2014 have multiplied exponentially,” Damina says in a note released July 14.

“A major bomb attack in Lagos will accelerate capital market flight, weaken the naira, dent economic growth, reduce corporate earnings and slash equity market values,” says the research firm.

Stocks have risen just

The rate of UK inflation rose sharply in June, pushed up by higher clothing, footwear, food and non-alcoholic drinks prices, official figures show.

The Consumer Prices Index rose to 1.9%, up from 1.5% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Women's clothing prices contributed heavily to the rise.

Air fares and furniture prices also pushed the inflation rate up, the ONS said.

The rate is now close to the Bank of England's 2% target. It has remained below the target for seven consecutive months.

The pound jumped against the dollar following the inflation figures, climbing as high as

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has found the United States violated global trade rules when it imposed tariffs on products from China and India.

In response to a 2012 complaint, the WTO said the US improperly imposed tariffs on Chinese steel and solar panels.

In a separate ruling, it said the US must change the way it imposes tariffs on India steel products.

The US is embroiled in several

President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigeria has no business being a net importer of food.

The president, who spoke on Monday at the commissioning of Olam Rice Mill in Rukubi Local Government Area of Nassarawa State, said, “Nigeria’s position as the largest economy in Africa is not enough unless we attain food sufficiency target of 2015, and even within the next 5 years begin exportation of rice and other staple food.”

He lauded Olam Farms for growing the rural economy with investment worth over $72 million that has 1,000 workers mostly rural women and youths in Nassarawa State.

Jonathan, who expressed believe that

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has said the only way to encourage investors to build more refineries in the country, is to create favourable business environment through deregulation of the downstream sector.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, made the remarks while speaking at a capacity building workshop for energy journalists in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

He noted that the current business environment in the sector was not conducive enough to attract investors because there was no guarantee investors would make returns that are commensurate with the investments.

According to him, “the media occupy a very important position in the scheme of things in Nigeria. In fact, globally, the media are part of every nation’s development process, provide the barometer to monitor and ensure that laid down procedures and processes are adhered to in every sector.

“The oil and gas sector therefore is

Despite its moribund state, Nigeria Telecommunication Ltd (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mtel, are still attractive to investors as 17 bidders are now prospecting for their core assets in the ongoing guided liquidation exercise of the national telecom carrier.

The assets on bid for NITEL are the licences and the spectrum, the nationwide fixed wired networks, the national right of way duct system, the fibre optic transmission backbone, and the CDMA network system. Others are international gateway earth stations, microwave transmission equipment/network and towers and other core assets.

For Mtel, the assets on sale are the

The United Nations Human Rights Council sitting in Geneva, has passed a resolution to hold transnational companies, especially in the oil and gas sector, accountable for environmental and human rights abuses in Nigeria, and anywhere in the world that they operate.

The Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Dr. Godwin Ojo, disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos.

Ojo said the Human Rights Council overwhelmingly voted against Transnational Corporations’ TNC voluntary mechanisms and instead voted for an International legally binding mechanism to regulate the activities of TNCs relating to the protection of human rights.

The victory, Ojo noted, marks another

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has absolved itself of owing the Federal Government the sum of $218 million oil revenue.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Andrew Yakubu, said this while fielded questions from journalists at the workshop organised for Energy Reporters in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The denial followed a directive by Senate to return the said amount to government.

In this regard, Yakubu said the Corporation will continue to engage the National Assembly over the non-remittance of funds to the Federation Account.

“We will continue to talk and see may be by and large they will have a change of mind,” he said.

Recall that the Senate had on Thursday, during the presentation of the Finance Committee report,

Citi agrees to pay $7 billion to settle securities investigation

Citigroup Inc said it agreed to pay $7 billion to settle a U.S. government investigation into mortgage-backed securities the bank sold in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The settlement figure was more that twice what many analysts expected earlier this year but less than the $12 billion the government had sought in negotiations with the bank.

Citigroup said on Monday it would pay $4.5 billion in cash and provide $2.5 billion in consumer relief.

The bank said it would take a

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the minimum capital base of Finance Companies by 400 percent to N100 million, with September 2015 as deadline for compliance.

This was announced in Lagos by Mr. Mudashiru Adegbite, Deputy Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision (OFIS) department, CBN at a stakeholders meeting on the new guidelines for finance companies.

He said that under the new guidelines, the minimum capital requirement of finance companies (FCs) has been increased from N20 million to N100 million, while the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans is now pegged at maximum of 10 percent.

“The deadline for compliance with the provisions of the Revised Guidelines shall be

The F-35 combat jet, due to be used on the UK's new aircraft carriers, will not make its UK debut on the opening day of the Farnborough Airshow.

However, it may still appear later in the week, organisers have said.

Earlier this month, the entire fleet of F-35s was grounded in the US following an engine fire.

Plans for the jet to appear at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, Gloucestershire, last Friday were also cancelled.

"The aircraft is still awaiting US DoD (Department of Defense) clearance but we are hopeful that

Not less than N74.855 billion will be lost by investors in the Nigerian capital market when the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, finally delists about 21 quoted companies from its Daily Official List in the next two months.

If all the 21 companies are finally delisted, they will bring the total number of companies delisted from the NSE due to regulatory action to 38 in four years (2010 – 2014), and would have resulted in massive depletion in the market capitalisation.

Meanwhile, shareholders of the companies marked for delisting have kicked against the move, saying that non-submission of quarterly or yearly financial accounts by quoted companies could be a ploy by those that want to exit the market to force the NSE to delist them on its own, thereby escaping the rigours of delisting process, which they claim is cumbersome.

The Exchange had late last month revealed

The Federal Government generated N5.2 billion between 2009 and 2013 from royalties in mining, Dauda Awojobi, Acting Director of Mines Inspectorate, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, has said.

Awojobi made the disclosure in Abuja, Sunday, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). He said that N736. 92 million was generated in 2009; N889, 46 million was generated in 2010, while N970. 78 million was generated in 2011.

He added that N1.12 billion was generated in 2012, while N1. 45 billion was generated in 2013, all of which he describes as significant “as the increment is in geometrical progression.”

Awojobi said

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, on Sunday said the state taskforce on environmental and other special offences and the Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) would be deployed to bring sanity to the road traffic situation in Apapa.

This follows the governor’s second visit to Apapa in one week, after reports that there had been no improvement in the traffic situation since his last visit on Sunday July 6. During that visit, the governor had held dialogue with stakeholders including fuel tanker drivers and tank farm owners, advising them to conduct their businesses in a manner that would cause minimum disturbance to others.

During his visit to Apapa yesterday, Fashola said

Banco Espirito Santo: Portugal seeks to calm fears over bank

Portugal's central bank has sought to steady investors' nerves by stating that Banco Espirito Santo does not need extra funds.

Banco Espirito Santo itself has said it has sufficient finances to deal with its parent company's debt problems.

Worries about the financial strength of the bank's parent company hit global stock markets on Thursday.

The central bank said investors had "no reason to doubt" the security of funds, and savers had "no need to be worried".

Restructuring plan

On Thursday, shares in both Banco Espirito Santo (BES) and Espirito Santo Financial Group - which holds a 25% stake in BES - fell sharply on

Iraqi Kurds have taken over two oil fields, Iraq's oil ministry says, amid a growing dispute with the government in Baghdad.

Kurdish peshmerga forces seized control of production facilities at Bai Hassan and the Kirkuk oil fields, in the north of Iraq, on Friday, the ministry adds.

Kurdish MPs have also withdrawn from Iraq's central government.

They did so after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused the Kurds of harbouring extremists.

Kurdish forces have moved into areas of

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday formally unveiled a telecommunications sector Corporate Governance Code specifically targeted at protecting the over $25 billion investment recorded in the industry.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony in Lagos, on Thursday, Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, NCC, said the code became necessary to reposition the sector, to enable it contribute even more to the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

Telecommunications was the star performer in Nigeria’s rebased GDP figures. The telecoms and information services sector contributed 8.68 percent to the

Luxury fashion brand Burberry is facing a shareholder revolt at the company's annual general meeting in London.

Up to a third of shareholders are thought to be unhappy about the pay package of Christopher Bailey, who took over as chief executive in May.

Mr Bailey was granted an annual allowance of £440,000 on top of his £1.1m salary.

When appointed chief executive, he was also given 500,000 shares in the company, currently worth more than £7m.

The Investment Management Association (IMA), has issued an "amber top" warning about

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has cut its forecast of demand for crude oil from the 12-member oil cartel next year by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), against the backdrop of surging supply from non-OPEC producers, particularly the United States (US).

The US overtook Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s biggest producer of oil as extraction of energy from shale rock strengthens the nation’s economy, Bank of America Corporation said in a report last week.

With efforts towards lifting the almost 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports in the US gaining traction, Nigeria and other oil-exporting West African countries stand to

The housing market has in recent times taken a plunge, leading to a significant rise in vacancy rates in expensive locations, notably Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki in Lagos, and Asokoro, Wuse and Garki areas of Abuja Federal Capital Territory, industry close watchers say.

The vacancy rate which rose to 28 percent in June, from 19 percent in May, does not, however, translate to an opportunity for prospective tenants and home buyers to jump to the market and grab homes.

Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), explained that the vacancy factor was a function of

Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has announced plans to set up three automotive and parts training centres, with the aim of training two million youths in the country.

The centres, according to ITF, is expected to help drive the Federal Government’s policy on automobile industry. Meanwhile, it said 35,000 young Nigerian men and women have been trained across the various states of the federation under the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP).

They have been equipped with

Global stock markets hit by Portuguese bank concerns

Stock markets in Europe and the US have fallen over concerns about the health of one of Portugal's biggest banks.

Shares in Banco Espirito Santo were suspended after falling 17% following concerns about accounting irregularities at its parent group.

As a result, the Lisbon stock exchange fell more than 4%, Madrid's IBEX was down 2.7%, while the Paris Cac 40 and Frankfurt's Dax were both 1.8% lower.

Wall Street also opened sharply lower, with

Oando Plc has converted a $218.9 million loan to its Toronto-listed unit Oando Energy Resources (OER) to equity, to increase its stake in the subsidiary by 1.6 percent to 93.6 percent, it said on Thursday.

Oando said the debt is part of a $1.2 billion facility it approved for its subsidiary in February to help finance the acquisition of ConocoPhillips Nigerian assets.

The oil firm secured Nigerian government approvals last month to complete the deal which it had agreed last year with ConocoPhillips but

Google is launching a venture capital fund to invest in promising European technology companies.

The $100m (£58m) fund will "invest in the best ideas from the best European entrepreneurs", according to Bill Maris, managing partner at Google Ventures, overseeing the project.

"We believe Europe's start-up scene has enormous potential."

The new operation will be based near London's Silicon Roundabout start-up district.

But Google is open to

China's trade performance improved in June but still missed market forecasts, reinforcing expectations that Beijing will have to unveil more stimulus measures to stabilize the economy and meet its 2014 growth target.

Exports rose 7.2 percent in June from a year earlier, the best pace in five months, but well below a median forecast in a Reuters poll for a rise of 10.6 percent.

Imports also missed expectations, growing by 5.5 percent versus forecasts of 5.8 percent, although they returned to positive territory after a small drop in May.

China's combined exports and imports edged up just

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