Daily Watch – Glo denies 9mobile acqusition, PFAs binge ₦6.28 trn on FGN bonds

15th January 2018

  • Power generation in Nigeria increased by 1,100MW in four days despite a fire incident early in the year that affected the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline supplying gas to some power plants. While the country’s current transmission capacity was put at 7,000MW, network operational capacity stood at 5,500MW. Total electricity generation stood at 4,327MW as of 6 am on 11 January, compared to 3,227.9MW on 6 January, when 12 power plants were idle. The rise in generation followed the resumption on 8 January of gas supply to six power plants – Egbin (Lagos), Omotosho I and II (Ondo), Olorunsogo I and II and Paras Energy (Ogun) – after the completion of the repair work on the pipeline, which was damaged by the 2 January fire incident. The plants did not generate any megawatt of electricity for four consecutive days until Monday when the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System which supplies gas to them came back on stream. Nigeria generates most of its electricity from gas-fired power plants, while the output from hydropower plants makes up about 30 percent of total national generation.
  • Globacom, Nigeria’s second-largest telecommunications network, says it has not acquired 9mobile. TheCable reported on 12 January, that the company said in a statement that it is bound by the terms of the acquisition process and it will not deviate from the rules. “Globacom has not acquired 9Mobile as widely reported in the media. We are bound by the terms of the acquisition process as stipulated by the authorities handling it and we will not in any way sway or deviate from the rules,” the statement read. The NCC said it would be left to the interim board of 9mobile to pick a winning bid out the recommended bids by it and the CBN. The deadline for bid submission is January 16. This comes as the Federal High Court in Lagos nullified an ex parte order it granted in July 2017 which had given legal backing to the interim board to manage the transition of 9mobile. The discharged order calls to question the legality of the board and the validity of the sale process. The company formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria was taken over in July 2017 after it defaulted on a ₦541 billion debt. Mubadala Group, the major investor from the United Arab Emirates, pulled out of Nigeria’s fourth-largest mobile operator as a result of the debt owed to a consortium of 13 banks.
  • PFAs have invested ₦6.28 trillion or 70.67 percent of the ₦7.41 trillion they hold in pension assets in government securities, as at the end of November 2017, new PenCom data shows. Investments in FGN securities include ₦4.02 trillion amounting to 54.30 percent in bonds; ₦1.21 trillion in treasury bills (16.29 percent); ₦5.99 billion in NMRC & FMBN agency bonds (0.08 percent) and ₦55.69 billion in Sukuk. Pension operators invested ₦148.21 billion in state government securities; corporate debt securities got ₦255.21 billion; supranational bonds got ₦11.33 billion; commercial papers, ₦44.59 billion; banks, ₦564.68 billion, while ₦224.72 billion was sunk in real estate properties, ₦6.07 billion in infrastructure funds and ₦15.35 billion in cash & other assets.
  • StarLink, a Value-Added Distributor has launched its Nigeria hub. The new hub will allow the company to serve the West African region as it looks to engage with interested IT security specialised partners. The move forms part of the company’s global expansion plans. Yaadhna Singh-Gounden, Africa Regional Manager at StarLink, said the expansion will see “further investments towards deploying local skills and a service office for an on-the-ground presence that would bridge the gap between lack of skills to representing vendors who do not have a local presence.” StarLink, a $200 million next-generation IT security technology with a presence in 13 countries, including the US and the UK, already operates in South Africa and Egypt.
  • Avalon Intercontinental, an international independent hotel group, has entered into a partnership with Radisson Blu Hotel, a global hotel chain within the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. Olaitan Salaudeen, director of legal at Avalon Intercontinental, announced this in a statement on Friday. “We are delighted to announce that effective today the hotel formerly known as Renaissance Hotel Ikeja, is now to be known and addressed as Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos Ikeja, part of the Avalon Hotel Collection owners of Protea Hotel Ikeja, Protea Hotel Victoria Island and Avalon Hotel, Offa, Kwara state,” the statement read. Salaudeen said Radisson Blu brand “reinforces our optimism and belief in this decision”.