We looove that you make an effort to open our emails every time you get a notification from us. It gets us excited that you want to learn something new.
The calendar says itâs another Saturday today so weâre guessing you have Saturday-ish plans. Party? Laundry? Netflix and Chill? Faffing? Well done!
But irrespective of what your plans are, itâs always a good time to learn something new, something interesting, something useful.
And thatâs why we bring you this bouquet of well-put-together information. Letâs dive in!
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An Assembly in Kano we bet you didnât know about
Just when we thought Innoson was the only Nigeria based car manufacturer, we found out that
thereâs another Nigerian based car manufacturing company in Kano, Nigeria.
Wait, who is Innoson?
Innoson is a Nigerian-based vehicle manufacturing company whose purpose is to wipe out âTokunboâ (foreign used) automobiles from the African market. You might also know them as the company battling with Guaranty Trust Bank in Court right now.
So who’s the other company in Kano?
Meet National Truck Manufacturers Ltd (NTM). (Try to say the acronym aloud and listen to your brain battle with MTN. Haha!)
NTM is also known as âKano Carsâ. They came into production in the 1970s, worked for a bit, then shut down in 1987 due to economic issues, but returned again in 2002 but as a private company. What a bumpy ride.
Is NTM a threat to Innoson?
For now, they are not. Maybe later on, though. NTM focuses on the production of trucks only, while Innoson produces SUVs, buses, vans and trucks.
Source: Twitter
Why does this matter?
It was reported in 2010 that NTM had planned to produce over 60,000 trucks in Nigeria.
Innoson sold just 3,000 vehicles in 2015 and exported 400 cars to Mali in 2017.
Itâs 2019, a few years after. While any increase in sales experienced would be nothing compared to the millions of sales our foreign competitors do, itâs probably good news that we have another indigenous vehicle manufacturing company. With the right support from the Government, these companies would become the ideal providers of vehicles for Nigerians; and maybe put an end to our famed vehicle importation. Remember, Nigerians spent $526 million importing used vehicles (âtokunboâ) last year.
Profit King-ing
Source: Bloomberg
Itâs a dream come true! Finally, the world got to see Saudiâs Aramcoâsâa Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas companyâfinancial statement for the first time on the 1st of April, 2019. Just in case youâre thinking what we were thinking, this was NOT an April Foolâs prank.
Why did it take so long?
Aramco didnât need to show anyone what it made because it is a private company. But as you know, there comes a time when every business needs to expand and diversify its source of income. So, because Aramco needed to borrow $69bn to acquire 70% of SABIC âa petrochemical companyâ it had to open its books for potential investors to see.
Was it worth the wait?
This depends on what people expected to see. We at Clooout think it was worth the wait though. It made $111bn in profit last year; thatâs more than the five oil majorsâRoyal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and bpâ combined. So much moneyđ
Fair enough for a company that produces about 10% of the worldâs crude oil. (Whoosh!)
Something Light from NNPC
If, for some reason, youâre wondering how NNPC is doing. The answer is âFineâ. It reported a trading surplus(profit) of âŠ12.13 (US$ 336.9m) billion in December 2018. So yay NNPC!
Credit Rating
Lagos is A-okay
Remember the story about Visionscape, the waste management company failing to pay back on its N4.5 bn loan?
You donât remember?
Arrgh, alright! Hereâs a quick recap.
Visionscape borrowed N4.5 bn from investors with the backing of the Lagos state government to repay the investors back if they are unable to pay them. But things went sour once they were bounced as the only waste management company in Lagos, and the government opted out of the deal to back them.
Credit rating agency, Fitch ratings, said âLagos would retain itâs positive (B+) economic ratings despite the missed contracted services payment by Visionscape Sanitation Solutionsâ.
Who is Fitch ratings?
Fitch ratings is an international credit rating agency. Investors use the company’s ratings as a guide as to which investments will not default and subsequently yield a solid return.
Come again ahghen?
Okay. Look at it this way, Whatâs the difference between a random stranger asking you for a loan and a stranger who was highly recommended by someone you trust asking for a loan?
You might say you see no difference because you have no money to give either ways (đ), but weâd say the difference is the âtrustâ. Credit rating agencies are the people we trust in the business world as they do all the work in vetting a company, state or country and rate them on how creditworthy they are. Subsequently, they announce their rating to the public for them to decide whether or not to invest. Many companies get rated as often as every quarter after releasing quarterly earning information.
So, If Lagos is rated B+, what is Nigeria rated?
Funding
Jumia got a CR Alert
With global e-commerce sale increasing by 13% in 2017, Mastercard has agreed to invest $56 million in Jumia, just ahead of the retailerâs planned initial public offering.
Why wait till now?
Mastercard was part of a group of investors that invested $10m in Flutterwaveâa payment processing companyâin October 2018. Maybe this is part of a series of strategic alliances, or maybe they just want to cash out when Jumia lists on the New York exchange.
Kudi Staying True to its Name
Whatâs money called in Hausa?
Itâs Kudi. Kudi is also the name of a company that started in 2016 with the mission to enable underbanked and unbanked Nigerians to access basic financial services. It recently raised US$5 million in funding.
Why does this matter?
Source: Global Findex Database
Nigeria today has 21 commercial banks, 942 microfinance banks, and numerous financial technology (fintech) yet only 40% of Nigerians are banked – have a bank account.
Take a deep breath, close your eyes, now think about how difficult different your life would be without a bank account.
Yeah, you get the picture now.
PAT Report Card
Itâs another week and the numbers are still coming in. Last week we looked at a couple of companies, this week weâre looking at more banks and other companies who recently released their financial statement for the year 2018. Letâs look at how they performed.
As usual, weâd focus on Profit after Tax (PAT); how profitable the company is and the growth rate from the previous year.
Unity Bank made N1.27 billion (US$35.3m), up by ~700% from 2017
Fidelity Bank made N22.9 billion (US$636.1m) up by 29% from 2017
Oando made N28.8 billion (US$800m) up by 46% from 2017
Dangote Sugar made N21.9 billion (US$608.3m) down by 44.8% from 2017
Medview lost N10.3 billion (US$286.1m) down by 925% from 2017. Yes thatâs a huge loss đ
Who is happy about at all of these?
The tax office đ
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is expecting the 14 commercial banks that are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), to pay an estimated sum of N103 billion in taxes for the financial year ended December 2018.
Elections
Finally, weâre kinda done with elections
Governor Nyesom Wike of the People Democratic Party emerged as the winner of March 9 governorship in Rivers state.
How did he win?
By a wide margin. Weâre talking 886,264 to 175,859, Out of 21 local governments, Wike won 19 and Awara Biokpomabo was only able to win two LGAs.
Any irregularities or Shortcomings?
Of course, This is Nigeria. No election was held in two local governments, and no results were reported in Gokana LGA. A total of 249,324 votes were cancelled.
Was it free and fair?
INEC officers say it was a very transparent exercise, weâd keep our thoughts to ourselves on this one.
Brexit
Huh? Whatâs next?
Source: Chappate
The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 12 April and yet, no withdrawal deal has been approved.
However, Theresa May has written to European Council President Donald Tusk to request an extension to 30 June. But if they agree to a deal in time, the UK should be able to leave before European parliamentary elections on 23 May.
Do you think the extension period is long enough for the Uk to finally agree on something it has 2 years to prepare for?
Market
So we decided to skip this week, do you miss this section?
Extra Gist
Marvel: Pssst! Hey, have you gotten your tickets for Avengers End game yet?
Probably not, Well advanced tickets went out this week in the US and everyone is going nuts about them. At this rate, itâs expected that sales would be around $200 million to $250 million over the opening weekend – April 26-28.
World Bank appoints a new president, David Malpass as President of the World Bank Group for a five-year term, beginning on Tuesday, April 9.
Zoom a video-conferencing software company that started in 2011 is set to file for an IPO – raise funds from the stock market, but unlike most tech companies at this stage, Zoom is profitable. It made a $7.6m profit last year and saw itâs revenue increase by 118% from the prior year.
Chief Justice of Nigeria Retires: Itâs safe to say it is finally over now as Walter Onnoghen, who was suspended from office on January 25 by the Federal Government for failing to declare part of his assets, voluntarily resigned this week.
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