As UBA seals $150m AfDB loan deal

… Mobil, Forte Oil lead NSE N2bn gainsUnited Bank for Africa, UBA, yesterday said it has secured a $150 million loan deal from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support infrastructure projects.

According to the bank, the loan would also be utilized to support Small and Medium scale Enterprises, SMEs, and businesses owned by women.

“The line of credit comes at an opportune time and would boost efforts at reducing the huge power sector financing deficit … and complement our support to medium and small scale enterprises,” Kennedy Uzoka, Chief Executive officer, UBA, told Reuters in an interview.

The AfDB has provided liquidity to UBA in the past for trade finance and other lending activities, he said.

Meanwhile, the reversal in activity on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, which commenced Wednesday continued yesterday as investors gained further N2 billion driven by appreciation in Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc and Forte Oil Plc.

Mobil Oil had notified investors that said Exxon Mobil Oil Corporation, EMOC, United States-based international oil company, that owns majority stake in the company, had executed a sale and purchase agreement with Nipco Plc, an indigenous downstream oil and gas company, for acquisition of the entire EMOC’s 60 per cent equity ownership in Mobil Nigeria Plc.

Mobil said in a statement to the NSE Tuesday that a formal application has been made by Nipco to the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, for an authority to proceed with the transaction.

The company stated that acquisition of EMOC’s 261.36 million shares would be for consideration of 310 million US dollars ‘subject to price adjustment for dividend and other factors’. The company’s shares has, therefore, risen steadily for three consecutive days, rising from N219.41 on Monday to N241.89 on Tuesday and further up to N294.00 at the close of transactions yesterday.

Forte Oil also rose by 10.2 per cent from N53.71 to N59.20 per share.

Consequently, the market capitalization of all listed equities appreciated by N2 billion or 0.02 percent to close at N8.691 trillion from N8.689 trillion the previous day.

Similarly, the All share Index, ASI, rose by 0.02 percent to settle at 25,265.08 points from 25,241.63 points.

Other gainers in the day include Portland Paints and products Plc, which went up by 9.3 per cent to close at N1.65, followed by Okomu Oil Plam Plc that appreciated by five percent to close at N38.01. Oando Plc closed as the last on the top five gainers for the day, rising by 4.7 percent to close at N3.97 per share. At the end of the day’s session, investors exchanged 773.87 million shares worth N1.91 billion in 2,334 deals.