The Nigerian bourse has approved the voluntary delisting of Seven-Up Bottling Co after it received a takeover bid from its majority shareholder aimed at restructuring the soft drinks bottler. Meanwhile The equities market extended losses into the sixth consecutive trading session as sustained profit taking by investors dragged the All Share Index 0.9 per cent lower to close at 42,737.89 points while YTD return contracted to 11.8 per cent. Accordingly, investors lost N139.6 billion in value as market capitalisation settled at N15.3 trillion. Market performance was dragged by sell pressure across board although losses in GUARANTY (-5.0%), ZENITH (-4.9%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%) were the major drags. However, activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 6.3 per cent to 517.4 million units while value traded appreciated 15.4 per cent to N5.2 billion respectively.
The stock exchange, which suspended trading in the company’s shares in January, said in a notice that it approved the delisting last week. In January, Seven-Up’s minority shareholders backed a $70 million buyout bid by majority investor Affelka, the investment firm of the Lebanese El-Khalil family. The bottler received the takeover proposal last August after posting losses, in a deal aimed at restructuring the 7-Up, Pepsi and Mirinda distributor. Seven-Up Bottling last traded at N101.97 per share, valuing the company at N65.32 billion. The soft drinks bottling industry has been hit by slow demand arising from weak economic growth in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which recently emerged from a recession and a currency crisis that stifled raw material imports. Seven-Up Bottling takeover comes six years after its main rival Coca-Cola delisted its local bottling unit in a $136 million buyout deal to expand the business and fend off competition.
Sector Performance was negative as all indices trended southwards. The Banking index declined the most, shedding 3.8 per c ent following losses in bellwether banking stocks – GUARANTY (-5.0%) and ZENITH (-4.9%). The Insurance index trailed, down 1.1 per cent due to price depreciation in EQUITYASSURE (-8.3%), and AIICO (-8.2%) while the Consumer Goods index was dragged 0.9 per cent lower by downtick in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%) and DANGSUGAR (-4.8%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices slid 0.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent due to losses in WAPCO (-3.9%) and ETERNA (-9.7%) respectively.
Market breadth (advance/decline ratio) which measures investor sentiment, improved slightly to 0.4x from 0.3x recorded the previous Friday consequent on 13 stocks advancing against 36 stocks that declined. The best performing stocks were PZ (+5.8%), BETAGLAS (+5.0%) and GLAXOSMITH (+5.0%) while ETERNA (-9.7%), EQUITYASSURE (-8.3%) and AIICO (-8.2%) were the worst performers. Although the bearish trend from last week was sustained today, we expect market performance to be boosted by bargain hunting in subsequent trading sessions.
In the NASD OTC Exchange, total volume and value traded stood at 340,240 units and N52.5 million respectively. The SDFCWAMCO and SDNDEP were the only instruments traded today
Market Statistics Monday, 12th February 2018
Market Cap (N’bn) 15,337.1
Market Cap (US$’bn) 50.1
NSE All-Share Index 42,737.89
Daily Performance % (0.9)
Week Performance % (3.4)
YTD Performance % 11.8
Daily Volume (Million) 517.4
Daily Value (N’bn) 5.2
Daily Value (US$’m) 16.9
