12-02-2018
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BUSINESS A.M. FEBRUARY, MONDAY <strong>12</strong> - SUNDAY 18, <strong>2018</strong><br />
COMPANY<br />
Hedge Funds<br />
21<br />
Guinness makes board change,<br />
appoints Njoroge executive director<br />
Ajose Sehindemi<br />
Guinness Nigeria<br />
Plc. has notified the<br />
Nigerian Stock Exchange<br />
(NSE) and<br />
the investing public<br />
of a change in its board following<br />
the resignation of Ronald Plumridge<br />
as executive director.<br />
In a notification to the NSE last<br />
Friday, Guinness said it has approved<br />
the appointment of Stanley<br />
Njoroge as replacement to Plumridge<br />
effective March 1, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
Njoroge is a certified public<br />
accountant and member of the<br />
Institute of Certified Accountants<br />
of Kenya (ICPAK). He is an<br />
alumnus of both the University of<br />
Nairobi and Strathmore University<br />
in Nairobi Kenya.<br />
Within the Diageo family, he<br />
has held a number of key finance<br />
leadership roles across Asia and<br />
Africa including financial controller<br />
of EABI; finance director<br />
of PT Gitaswara Indonesia and<br />
finance director of Meta Abo<br />
Brewery SC/ Diageo Ethiopia.<br />
THIS WEEK ISN’T TURN-<br />
ING out to be great one<br />
for Uber in Japan. Two of<br />
its investors — Didi and<br />
SoftBank — are teaming<br />
up to launch a rival service, while<br />
one of its existing competitors has<br />
just landed a big cash infusion and<br />
highly influential backer after Toyota<br />
backed JapanTaxi.<br />
The auto giant said it will invest<br />
7.5 billion JPY ($69 billion) into JapanTaxi,<br />
an Uber-like service that<br />
is owned by Ichiro Kawanabe, who<br />
runs Japan’s largest taxi operator Ni-<br />
He is an alumnus<br />
of both the<br />
University of<br />
Nairobi and<br />
Strathmore<br />
University in<br />
Nairobi Kenya<br />
Toyota invests $69M in Japanese<br />
Uber rival backed by the taxi industry<br />
Ajose Sehindemi<br />
JapanTaxi also<br />
offers a fare<br />
calculator app if<br />
you took a taxi<br />
offline, and an app<br />
for booking rides<br />
for children<br />
In his most recent role as the<br />
Diageo global audit and risk director,<br />
Africa and Europe, he was<br />
responsible for providing assurance<br />
to the audit committee of<br />
Diageo Plc’s board of directors on<br />
the management of risks across<br />
Diageo businesses in Africa (Nigeria,<br />
East Africa, South Africa,<br />
and Africa regional markets) and<br />
Europe.<br />
hon Kotsu and heads up the country’s<br />
taxi federation.<br />
Toyota is also an Uber investor<br />
and it previously backed JapanTaxi<br />
via $4.5 million investment from its<br />
Mirai Creation Fund, according to<br />
Bloomberg.<br />
These new funds will go towards<br />
developing the service further, while<br />
Toyota said it plans “cooperation and<br />
business collaboration in such areas<br />
as connected terminals for taxis, the<br />
joint development of vehicle-dispatch<br />
support systems, and big-data<br />
collection.”<br />
JapanTaxi also offers a fare calculator<br />
app if you took a taxi offline, and<br />
an app for booking rides for children.<br />
Uber doesn’t provide business information<br />
or user numbers for its business<br />
Japan or other markets in Asia.<br />
However, it is said to account for less<br />
than one percent of Tokyo’s taxi market.<br />
JapanTaxi, meanwhile, claims four<br />
million downloads and 60,000 taxis —<br />
or around one-quarter of all taxi drivers<br />
in Japan — on its platform.<br />
Messaging app Line is another<br />
competitor in Japan, where peer-topeer<br />
rides are banned. Line’s hailing<br />
service sits inside its app — which is<br />
Japan’s most popular messenger —<br />
and it has integrated with taxi operators<br />
that include Nihon Kotsu, but it<br />
is unclear how popular it is now following<br />
its 2015 launch.<br />
Japan’s taxi industry is one of the<br />
largest at $15 billion per year. With<br />
Didi and SoftBank set to offer yet<br />
another competitor, it is no surprise<br />
that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi<br />
has made Japan the first stop of his<br />
inaugural trip to Asia as head of the<br />
ride-sharing firm.<br />
Equity Assurance announces name<br />
change, now Sunu Assurances Nigeria<br />
EQUITY ASSURANCE<br />
PLC. has announced<br />
name change to Sunu Assurances<br />
Plc. The company<br />
in a notification to all<br />
stakeholders said having passed the<br />
necessary special resolution in line<br />
with section 31()3) of the Companies<br />
and Allied Matters Act (CAMA),<br />
Cap20, laws of the federation, 2004,<br />
and obtaining the approval of the<br />
Corporate Affairs Commission<br />
(CAC), it has changed its name to<br />
Sunu Assurances Nigeria Plc.<br />
It further said that pursuant to section<br />
31(5) of CAMA, it has been issued<br />
a new certificate of incorporation<br />
by the registrar general of CAC<br />
evidencing the change of name.<br />
Equity Assurance Plc was incorporated<br />
on 3rd October 1991 with registration<br />
number RC.175105.<br />
It provides non-life insurance to corporate<br />
and retail customers in Nigeria<br />
and Ghana.<br />
It operates through three segments:<br />
Non-Life, Asset Management, and<br />
Health Management.<br />
The Non-Life segment covers the<br />
Cadbury taps Mordi from Dangote to<br />
lead communications strategy<br />
Ajose Sehindemi<br />
CADBURY NIGERIA<br />
PLC, the Nigerian arm<br />
of multinational confectionary<br />
company,<br />
Cadbury, has tapped<br />
Frederick Mordi, a serial writer<br />
and journalist from Nigeria’s<br />
Dangote Group, to lead its communications<br />
strategy.<br />
Mordi was tapped in the closing<br />
headhunting season of last<br />
year, according to sources in the<br />
marketing communications industry.<br />
His role at Cadbury sees<br />
him functioning as the confectionary<br />
maker’s communications<br />
specialist.<br />
Cadbury has been without a<br />
substantive spokesperson since<br />
Omije Akomen left for Nigerian<br />
Bottling Company a few years ago.<br />
Money market rates to spike<br />
on tighter system liquidity<br />
MONEY MARKET<br />
RATES - Open Buy<br />
Back (OBB) and<br />
Over Night (OVN)<br />
- trended higher<br />
on three of five trading days in the<br />
past week as the Central Bank of<br />
Nigeria (CBN ) conducted OMO<br />
auctions on all days of the week.<br />
At the start of the week, OBB and<br />
OVN rates closed at 18.4 percent<br />
and 19.3 percent from 11.6 percent<br />
and <strong>12</strong>.2 percent recorded the<br />
previous Friday following an OMO<br />
auction worth N110 billion as well<br />
as wholesale Secondary Market<br />
Intervention Sales (SMIS) worth<br />
US$100 million, which were conducted<br />
by the CBN.<br />
On Tuesday, OBB and OVN rates<br />
further increased to 35.8 percent<br />
and 37.4 percent respectively as the<br />
protection of customers’ assets and<br />
indemnification of other parties that<br />
have suffered damage as a result of<br />
customers’ accidents.<br />
The Asset Management segment offers<br />
finance leases to both individual<br />
and corporate clients.<br />
The Health Management segment offers<br />
health management to both corporate<br />
and individual clients.<br />
The company offers various insurance<br />
products, including fire and<br />
special peril, consequential loss, burglary,<br />
householder’s, cash in transit,<br />
goods in transit, public liability,<br />
products liability, fidelity guarantee,<br />
aviation, oil and energy, motor trade,<br />
machinery breakdown, professional<br />
indemnity, medical expense/evacuations,<br />
personal liability, and personal<br />
accident insurance products.<br />
Equity Assurance Plc is a corporate<br />
member of the West African Insurance<br />
Company Association (WAICA)<br />
and the Nigeria Insurers’ Association<br />
(NIA), the official umbrella of registered<br />
insurance companies in Nigeria,<br />
as well as The Africa Insurance<br />
Organization (AIO).<br />
Bala Yusufe, a sales and marketing<br />
professional has discharged<br />
communications’ function since<br />
then.<br />
A business journalist of repute,<br />
Mordi has over 15 years experience<br />
spanning economic and developmental<br />
journalism, public<br />
relations and corporate communications.<br />
He once wrote for Londonbased<br />
African Business magazine,<br />
a pan-African monthly publication.<br />
He had also worked with the<br />
now rested Financial Standard<br />
newspapers, where he rose from a<br />
reporter to news editor.<br />
Mordi holds a masters degree<br />
in Media and Communications<br />
from the Pan-Atlantic University,<br />
Lagos, and until recently, was the<br />
Prosci-certified change manager<br />
and group head, internal communications<br />
at Dangote Group in<br />
CBN mopped up N20 billion (offered<br />
N40 billion) through its OMO<br />
auction.<br />
Similarly, the uptrend was sustained<br />
on Wednesday as rates further<br />
surged to 53.0% and 53.1%<br />
respectively consequent on a N<strong>12</strong>.3<br />
billion decline in system liquidity<br />
which settled at N10.2bn. However<br />
on Thursday, system liquidity improved<br />
following an OMO maturity<br />
of N67.7 billion, which hit the system,<br />
hence OBB and OVN rate declined<br />
to 46.7 percent and 48.0 percent<br />
respectively. Money market<br />
rates remained in double digits on<br />
Friday, albeit lower than Thursday,<br />
closing the week at 43.3 percent<br />
and 45.5 percent, up 31.7 and 33.3<br />
percentage points week-on-week,<br />
respectively.