Inglorious Bastards: Adoption Procedure for Orphan Stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange
This week on Street Talking in NEXT, I discuss the challenges small- and mid-cap companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange face in attracting and sustaining investment community attention. I conclude with a number of recommendations.
Initial public offerings and listings are very exciting events in the life of a company. Endless consulting sessions with advisers, regulatory filings, travel logistics for road shows, analyst presentations and PR campaign vetting impress on insiders that the company is crossing an historic threshold. Read More…
Next in line: Successor visibility at Public Companies
This week on Street Talking in NEXT, I discuss the importance of providing fora of visibility for those in the succession line at companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
For an institution long considered key man-captive, UBA has proven the pundits wrong. Less than forty-eight hours after the new Central Bank of Nigeria rule on the tenure of bank chief executives, UBA, without skipping a heartbeat, announced that Phillips Oduoza would replace Tony Elumelu its helm. Three words rush to mind in describing the first phase of the transition: seamless, smooth, style. Up to that point, it was flawless. Read More…
Surf boards: Riding Public and Private Sector waves
This week on Street Talking in NEXT, I argue that the time has come for public companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange to lay down rules on the extra-company activities of directors, particularly those which involve regulatory responsibility or political involvement.
I have just finished reading a stimulating piece by Femi Awoyemi of ProShare on the potential conflicts of interest Senator Udo Udoma, the City grandee and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will be exposed to in his latest appointment as the chairman of UAC. To calm public concerns over any ethical risks he may run, Senator Udoma, who also sits on the boards of Nestlé and Linkage Assurance, has issued a staunch defense on the correctness of his appointment. The last time this subject provoked a passionate debate was over the position of Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, director-general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, as chairman of Transnational Corporation, a quoted company. Read More…
My New Year Wish List: Dreaming of the Big Board
This week on Street Talking in NEXT, I argue for the listing of successful private companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Alright, so today’s title should have been ‘My Christmas wish list’. In fact, I got bitten by this wishful thinking bug only a few days to Christmas. On December 20, 2009, Binos Yaroe, general manager, Market Operations & IT at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, announced that its governing Council had approved the change in name of its junior board from Emerging Markets to Alternative Investment Market & Private Placements. The move, he explained, was to ‘provide incentives and waivers’ to more companies to list on the NSE. That was the fire for my wire. The only snag is that now that the festive season is over, wish lists have been put on freeze. Well, sort of. But mine is a different kind of dream gift basket. The presents are not really for me in the selfish sense of sole ownership or benefits. On the contrary, granting my wish would profit the genie as much as the kettle rubber. Read More…
Hi-Fi: Pumping up the Valuation Volume
In announcements on strategic actions, companies often present the singular act as sufficient cause for a boost in shareholder value. This week in Street Talking on NEXT, I argue that that is not enough. To enjoy a higher valuation, companies need to improve the information environment to give investors a clearer view on the business. Simply focusing on other companies that have enjoyed higher trading multiples consequent to such transactions misses the subsequent actions they took in ensuring that the markets had a better understanding of their value creating actions.
This week marks the second anniversary since Apple, the maker of iconic products, announced its entry into the mobile handset space with the iPhone. On the same day Steve Jobs, its CEO, demoed the phone at the January 2007 MacWorld Conference, the company changed its name from Apple Computer to simply Apple, Inc. The Cupertino, California-based company’s decision to excise ‘computer’ from its name was intended to reflect its transition from solely designing and making personal computing products with cult status to a broader portfolio of consumer electronics goods and services, including on-line distribution of music, home entertainment systems, digital audio players, cellphones, software and of course, computers with wider appeal outside its core geek demographic. Read More…
CSR Salad: Is Corporate Social Responsibility a fad diet or nutritional staple?
This week in Street Talking on NEXT, I argue that the corporate social responsibility initiatives by companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange ought to aim further than philanthropic gestures to a broader set of objectives of significance to socially responsible fund managers.
The story I am about to recount is not intended as a joke. Just the other day, I stopped at my roadside vulcanizer’s to peak my tire pressure. Fill done, I brought out my wallet to pay. As I made to pay, Musbau, the head vulcanizer, smiled at me and announced with all the benevolence he could muster, ‘Oga, no worry. Today, na free as part of my own corporate social responsibility.’ Corporate social what? Obviously, my shock at his familiarity with the term failed to register. ‘Yes, I don decide make I dash my customers free air today as part of Christmas appreciation,’ he beamed. Read More…
Rebel with[out] a cause: Theory and Practice of Shareholder Activism
This week on Street Talking on NEXT, I review the tactics of shareholder agitants on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2009 and identify why they enjoy very limited success in galvanizing popular support.
In his famous 1947 essay, ‘The Sources of Soviet Power’, George Kennan, the late distinguished foreign policy wonk, writing under the pseudonym ‘X’, advised the US government that only ‘the adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points’ could contain Russia’s imperial ambitions. His ideas would lead the US to sponsor several proxy wars in countries far removed from the epicenter of its vital interests such as Angola, Laos and Vietnam. Read More…
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