Friday <strong>06</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 34 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Live @ The Stock Exchange Dangote Cement, ETI, Eterna reroute market northwards …Seplat settles with Crestar on $20.5m escrow money Stories by Iheanyi Nwachukwu Nigerian stock market on Thursday ended a twoday losing streak as Dangote Cement Plc led the basket of 21 equities that gained as against 22 losers. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.31percent at the close of trading at 2:30 pm Nigerian time, while the market’s Year-to-Date (Ytd) return stood at 6.88percent. The All Share Index closed at 40,875.69 points as against the preceding day close of 40,749.86 points while Market Capitalisation closed at N14.766 trillion as against preceding day close of N14.720 trillion; the value of Nigeria’s listed stocks appreciated by about N46billion. The volume of stocks traded increased by 23.47percent, from 401.41million to 495.64million, while the total value of stocks traded increased by 13.35percent, from N6.77billion to N7.67billion in 4,614 deals. The Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 434.8million shares exchanged for N5.74 billion; followed by Consumer Goods with 23.8million shares traded for N1.596 billion. UBA Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, GTBank Plc, Access Bank Plc, and FBN Holdings Plc were actively traded stocks on the bourse yesterday. Dangote Cement Plc rose from N251 to N255, up by N4 or 1.59percent; ETI Plc advanced from N16.35 to N17, up by 65kobo or 3.98percent; while Eterna Plc rose from N6.01 to N6.29, up by 28kobo or 4.66percent. On the laggards table, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria Plc dipped most from N34.85 to N31.5, down by N3.35 or 9.61percent; followed by International Breweries Plc which dipped from N54.4 to N51.7, down by N2.7 or 4.96percent; and Julius Berger Nigeria Plc declined from N25.9 to N24.7, down by N1.2 or 4.63percent. Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (Seplat) told the investing public that a settlement has been reached between its wholly owned subsidiary Newton Energy Limited (Newton) and Crestar Natural Resources Limited (Crestar). The settlement relates to proceedings in the English High Court, details of which were announced by Seplat on January 27, 2017, in connection with the deposit of $20.5 million currently held in an escrow account (the Escrow Monies). The litigation has now been substantially settled between the parties. Under the terms of the settlement, the Escrow Monies will be split as follows: $10million to Seplat and $10.5 million to Crestar. A provision equal to the share of Escrow Monies due to Crestar was already provided for in Seplat’s audited 2017 annual accounts. FCMB partners Etihad, secures unbeatable travel fares for its customers Customers of First City Monument Bank Limited (FCMB) who plans to travel abroad for personal or business purposes at very affordable fares now have an opportunity to do so. This is because, the bank and Etihad Airways have launched a partnership that offers discounted; highly affordable and convenient travel packages, including flight tickets, to existing and potential customers who fly on Etihad Airlines to any part of the world. To benefit from the package, all an existing customer of FCMB needs do is to visit a dedicated website www. FCMB.com/premium-travel-offers, log in to complete a form and submit. But for a non-customer, all that’s needed to open an account is to log in to https://onlineaccount.fcmb.com/start before the booking form, using any of the devices to complete the process. The discounted fares come with various benefits in the bank’s financial products and services stable to enhance the travel experience of customers. These include Personal Travel Allowance (PTA) and Business Travel Allowance (BTA) services, complimentary platinum cards and priority passes, complimentary lounge access at departure in Lagos, among other benefits. There is also the USA Immigrations clearance at Abu Dhabi for travelers going to the United States and a dedicated service for customers who intend to travel to the Holy land in Mecca for Hajji and Umrah. In a welcome address, the Managing Director, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Adam Nuru commended Etihad Airways for the quality of service it offers its customers, noting that the brand within a few years of its establishment, has achieved a very robust international image with a high level of global acceptability within the aviation circles. Nuru said, “I thank the representatives of Etihad Airways Group. We do not take our partnership with you for granted. We take it seriously knowing that it will surely strengthen our course and increase the range of valuable products we can offer our loyal customers”. In his own contribution at the launch, the Executive Director, Retail Banking of FCMB, Olu Akanmu, said it is a value-added offering designed to deliver high quality of service and satisfaction for customers. According to him, ‘’what FCMB has done with Etihad Airways gives advantage to our existing customers and prospects who may wish to open account(s) with FCMB. We recognise several business travels our customers do. A good number of them may be preparing for summer holidays. Some of our customers will also want to fulfil their pilgrimage obligations in the coming weeks. Those traveling for medicals and even for academic purpose or seminars abroad can benefit. FCMB is partnering with Etihad to offer convenient and discounted travel fares to customers. This is one of the many reasons to patronize FCMB”. FCMB has also made financial products available in order to provide a seamless and easy travel experience with its international debit and credit cards with increased spending limit of foreign currencies. The bank, which is aware of some challenges encountered by travelers in obtaining personal travelling and basic travelling allowances, has made it a very easy process. To obtain the PTA/BTA, all a customer needs to do is to walk into any FCMB branch or outlet with the requisite international passport with visa and ticket booked with Etihad. While commenting on the partnership, the General Manager, Africa of Etihad Airways, George Mawadri, said, ‘’it is a privilege to partner FCMB and we are indeed happy. Etihad is a young airline, though we have grown within the short period of time.
Friday <strong>06</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>2018</strong> BUSINESS DAY 35
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