Daily Watch – Whistleblower policy nets big sums, Shareholders smile to the banks
27th March 2018
- A new report by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit says that the FG has recovered over ₦143.89 billion through the implementation of the whistleblower policy. The report showed that the government had successfully recovered ₦7.8 billion, $378 million and £27,800. It said since the policy was introduced in 2016 to fight financial crimes and corruption, PICA has received 8,373 tips, 1,231 of which were said to have been on financial crimes, and while ₦97.94 billion was saved in 2016, ₦110.46 billion was saved in 2017. The report said the FG was able to investigate 791 cases, out of which 534 were completed. The FG says it has been able to save ₦208 billion through the payroll audit of its MDAs.
- A multimillion Euro offer from Vivendi to buy African pay-TV platform MultiChoice has been rejected by owners and global internet and entertainment group Naspers. Apart from Multichoice, Naspers has interests in classifieds provider OLX and other companies as well as a massively lucrative stake in Chinese Internet giant, Tencent. Vivendi SA (formerly Vivendi Universal SA) on the other hand is a French multinational mass media conglomerate headquartered in Paris. French business channel BFM reported an approach was made by the Canal+ owner in the past few months. Whilst Canal was shedding subscribers in France, the one high-spot was its international platform in French-speaking Africa. A combination with the English MultiChoice would have been the perfect fit. Rumours of a sale first surfaced in May 2017 after a period in which profits at MultiChoice had come under increasing pressure from cheaper rivals. Any sale would not have featured lucrative MultiChoice Africa. MultiChoice serves 48 countries including Nigeria and counts 4.6 million subscribers, 2.6 million by satellite and over 3 million DTT subscribers in 10 countries in the region through its DStv, M-net and SuperSport brands. Naspers raised $9.8 billion last week selling a slice of its Tencent shares and plans to use the money to accelerate the growth and scale of its e-commerce businesses, which could potentially be listed.
- Medview Airline recorded a 42 percent increase in its revenue at the end of December 2017 as it declares a dividend of 3k per share. The company’s revenue increased from ₦26.04 billion in 2016 to ₦36.91 billion in 2017. Speaking at the pre-AGM and presentation of its 2017 Annual Report and Financial Statements to shareholders in Lagos, CEO Muneer Bankole said despite the challenging economic problems, the airline was able to stay above water and generate a significant increase in revenue. “Lack of adequate government support for the aviation sector and the slow recovery of the country’s economy from recession is still an impediment to the rapid growth of the aviation industry”, he said.
- A Daily Trust analysis of financial releases by 22 NSE listed companies shows that shareholders received a total of ₦231 billion in dividends for the 2017 financial year. The biggest beneficiary has been Dangote Cement shareholders who received ₦10.50 kobo for each of its 17 billion shares which rounded up to ₦179 billion in total dividend payments for the period under review, 68 percent of the total dividend so far. Nestle offered ₦42.50 kobo on each share to its 792 million shareholders amounting to ₦33.6 billion. Total Nigeria also made a strong showing with an offering of ₦14 for each of its 339 million shares amounting to ₦4.7 billion. Pharmaceuticals giant, GSK, followed closely with a ₦7.50 kobo for each of its 1.1 billion shares, amounting to ₦8.9 billion. Nigerian Breweries is offering ₦3.13 for its 7.9 billion shares amounting to ₦2.5 billion. Tier-one banks Zenith and GTB are offering ₦2.40 and ₦2.45, amounting to ₦7.6 billion and ₦7.00 billion respectively. Construction giant, Julius Berger is also offering ₦1.00 each for its 1.3 billion shares amount to ₦1.3 billion. Twelve other companies comprising of Vitafoam, African Prudential, United Capital, Medview Air, Stanbic IBTC, Custodian and Allied Insurance, Access Bank and UBA, are all offering less than ₦1.00 per share, amounting to a total of ₦19.4 billion or 7.3 percent of the total dividend amount by NSE firms.