Daily Watch – NNPC pays ₦1.4trn in PMS subsidy, Tantalizers record first profit in half-decade

6th April 2018

  • Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu said on Thursday that the country is currently recording an under-recovery of ₦1.4 trillion per annum on PMS. Kachikwu, who stated this at a workshop on harmonisation of LPG regulatory requirements, said the unnecessary cost incurred from petrol consumption, the majority of which is imported, underscored the need for the country to shift to alternative energy for our transportation needs. Under-recovery is a situation whereby the NNPC is incurring the cost of the differential between the official PMS price and the actual cost of import.
  • Nigerian crude offers for May loading were above the April level despite what traders described as limited demand. Three million barrels of Nigerian oil was set to sail for India as part of the most recent IOC tender, but an excess of cargoes remained. There was a handful of April cargoes yet to trade, as well as the bulk of the May programme, Reuters report. Still, offer levels were above those of the previous month, which sources said was limiting spot trade. Gunvor and Chevron were offering Forcados as high as $1.90 per barrel above dated Brent, while BP offered Bonny Light at the same level. Shell was offering Agbami at dated Brent plus 60 cents a barrel and Erha at dated Brent plus $1.90. Traders said while these levels were too high to enable fresh spot deals, some sellers could be planning to keep the cargoes for their own refining systems.
  • Ten companies that could not meet the NSE’s March 31 deadline for filing audited financial reports. In statements posted on the exchange’s website, the companies, including First Bank Nigeria Holdings, Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank, International Breweries, Linkage Assurance, Abbey Mortgage Bank, Guinea Insurance, Lafarge Africa, Mutual Benefits and Union Bank, notified the public of the delay. FBNH said the “peculiarity of FBNH’s group structure” where each of these subsidiaries needs to audit its financial statements and obtain the approval of its respective regulator necessitated the delay. Linkage Assurance said it could not secure the approval of the National Insurance Commission, its primary regulator, before the filing deadline while International Breweries said the delay was due to the consolidation of the accounts of newly merged entities, Pabod Breweries and Intafact Beverages with that of the company.
  • Nigerian conglomerate UAC plans to raise ₦20 billion ($65.4 million) this year through a bond sale to refinance short-term borrowings at its real estate subsidiary, where losses have widened, Group CEO Abdul Bello said on Thursday. Bello said the company would restructure its real estate unit UPDC, which is suffering from a current oversupply in the market coupled with a drop in Nigerians’ purchasing power. Bello told an analysts’ call that the harsh economic conditions were still affecting the housing market and that sales at UPDC fell 20 percent in 2017. UPDC reported on Wednesday that its losses widened to ₦3.05 billion in 2017 from ₦1.23 billion the previous year. The group reported a pretax profit of ₦3.25 billion for 2017, but this was down 61 percent.
  • Tantalizers released its 2017 earnings on Wednesday, reporting a system revenue of ₦3.7 billion up 2.7 percent from ₦3.6 billion in 2016 and its first profit in over five years. The company had in a press release last year estimated system revenue of over ₦4 billion by the end of 2017. The Quick Service Restaurant Chain (QSRC) reported a profit after tax of ₦443 million. The positive balance sheet helped the company avoid a technical insolvency as it was just ₦300 million away from negative equity. The company was buoyed by about ₦1.49 billion in asset sales towards the end of the financial year, which helped it repay ₦862 million in loans as well as ₦269 million in interest payments.