Business
NGX Welcomes Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc With Closing Gong Ceremony
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, on Tuesday, July 13, marked the listing of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc’s (“GTCO Plc”) shares with a Closing Gong Ceremony on the main floor of the exchange.
This follows the completion of all regulatory requirements for the corporate reorganization of the leading financial institution into a holding company structure and the listing of GTCO Plc, on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited and the London Stock Exchange, replacing Guaranty Trust Bank Plc.
Guaranty Trust was first listed on the Nigerian Exchange in 1997, winning the “Nigerian Stock Exchange President’s Merit Award” within months of its listing. In 2007, it became the first Nigerian bank to list on London Stock Exchange, the first to dual list on an international exchange, and the first Nigerian company to raise international capital using listed Global Depositary Receipts.
Since then, Guaranty Trust has embarked on a decade of unparalleled growth with total assets and shareholders’ funds closing at ₦4.993trillion and ₦837.2billion respectively, at the end of Q1, 2021.
As part of its long-term growth strategy, Guaranty Trust has now adopted a holding company structure wherein GTCO Plc will operate as the parent company of all Guaranty Trust banking businesses across Africa and the United Kingdom as well as other non-banking businesses which will be established following the transition.
Segun Agbaje, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust, commented: “These are very exciting times for us. Following our transition, we can now compete more effectively with non-banks in this new and evolving competitive landscape, whilst creating more value for customers and shareholders than we ever could as a bank.
Although we are delighted to have completed this rigorous transition process, we know that the hard work has just begun. We are in the final phase of building a new payments business that will deepen and extend digital financial services across Africa.
We also believe that we are in a better position to drive an Asset Management business and a Pension Fund business, given our strong retail base and digital-first approach to financial services, which we have honed over the past decade.”
Founded in 1990, Guaranty Trust has maintained an unbroken streak of year-on-year growth and a consistent lead in driving the digitization of financial services in Africa.
It is the best managed financial institution in Nigeria, leading the industry across key financial indices, such as Return on Equity (ROAE of 26.0% in Q1 2021), Return on Assets (ROAA of 4.3% in Q1 2021), and Cost to Income ratio (42.6% in Q1 2021).
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TotalEnergies and Nigerian independent energy company AMNI International have taken the Final Investment Decision on the $800 million Ima Gas Project, more than five decades after the gas field was discovered.
The Ima Gas Project, located in shallow waters across Oil Mining Leases 112 and 117 near Bonny Island, Rivers State, is expected to begin production in 2028 and reach a plateau of 350 million cubic feet of gas per day.
The development is expected to play a major role in supplying feed gas to Nigeria LNG, with the Ima field projected to provide about one-third of the additional gas required for the ongoing Train 7 expansion.
Train 7 is expected to increase Nigeria LNG’s liquefaction capacity from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 million tonnes per annum, strengthening Nigeria’s capacity to process and export liquefied natural gas.
The Ima field was discovered in 1973 but remained undeveloped for more than 50 years. The Final Investment Decision provides the commercial and financial basis for finally developing the long-dormant resource.
Under the development plan, TotalEnergies will operate the project with a 40 per cent interest, while AMNI will hold the remaining 60 per cent.
The field will be developed using a single offshore platform connected to Nigeria LNG’s facility on Bonny Island through a 22-kilometre pipeline.
TotalEnergies said its investment in the project is more than $600 million, while the Federal Government described the overall Final Investment Decision as an $800 million investment.
At the FID signing ceremony in Abuja, TotalEnergies Exploration and Production Nigeria Managing Director, Mathieu Bouyer, described the decision as the culmination of a development process that had stretched across several decades.
He said the project reflected increased confidence in Nigeria’s investment environment and highlighted reforms targeting the non-associated gas sector as part of the factors that helped make the development commercially viable.
President Bola Tinubu welcomed the investment, saying the project demonstrated the potential of reforms introduced to reduce the cost and time required to develop oil and gas projects.
The President said the government had introduced incentives aimed specifically at unlocking onshore and shallow-water gas projects that had remained undeveloped for years.
He said the Ima development would create opportunities for Nigerian businesses, engineers, technicians and contractors, while generating jobs, economic activity in host communities and additional export earnings.
The project is also expected to have a strong Nigerian content component. TotalEnergies said all key contractors for the development would be Nigerian companies, while about 60 per cent of the workforce during the development phase is expected to come from host communities.
The development will incorporate measures aimed at reducing emissions. TotalEnergies said the platform would receive electricity from shore, operate without routine flaring and use permanent methane detection and monitoring systems.
The Federal Government said the project is part of efforts to turn Nigeria’s large natural gas reserves into productive assets capable of supporting industrialisation, energy supply, jobs and export earnings.
Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said the Ima development illustrated the importance of creating commercial and investment conditions that allow previously stranded resources to be developed.
The government also noted that Nigerian financial institutions arranged 77 per cent of the project’s financing, further highlighting the participation of domestic financial institutions in the development.
For Nigeria LNG, the project comes as the company continues work on the Train 7 expansion, which is designed to increase the Bonny Island plant’s liquefaction capacity and strengthen the country’s position in the global LNG market.
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