Net profit for Industrial & Commercial Bank of China climbed almost five percent to 160.4 billion yuan ($23.5 billion) between January and June compared to the same period last year, the bank said in a statement to the Hong Kong exchange, where it is listed.

The country’s three other top banks posted similarly strong results this week.

China’s second largest lender, China Construction Bank, said earlier this week that its net profit grew 6.3 percent to 147 billion yuan.

Agricultural Bank of China reported a 6.6 percent jump to 115.8 billion yuan.

Bank of China said net profit was up 5.2 percent to 109.1 billion yuan in the first half.

All of China’s four biggest banks saw profit growth largely flat-line in 2015 and 2016 as concerns grew over rising bad loans.

Earnings have improved since a government campaign to clean up bad loans and risky lending in China’s often chaotic and murky financial system last year.

The crackdown is seen as hitting smaller lenders and wealth management companies hardest, driving them to seek loans from the established banks in order to clean up their balance sheets.

But ICBC warned that the trade dispute with the United States could bring more risks for the bank in the future.

“The US-China trade frictions may in particular negatively affect multiple sectors, bringing more risks and disturbances to bank operations,” ICBC said in the earnings report.

The United States has imposed steep tariffs of 25 percent on $50 billion of Chinese goods since July, with Beijing retaliating dollar for dollar.

US President Donald Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

“Hot beverages is one of the few remaining segments of the total beverage landscape where Coca-Cola does not have a global brand. Costa gives us access to this market through a strong coffee platform,” Coca-Cola chief executive James Quincey said in a joint statement.

The deal comes amid eroding consumer demand for conventional carbonated drinks owing to health and obesity concerns in the US and other markets.

Earlier in August, Coca-Cola’s fierce rival PepsiCo struck a deal to buy Israeli company SodaStream for $3.2 billion — in a pitch to consumers concerned also about mounting waste from soda cans and plastics in landfills worldwide.

SodaStream makes machines that carbonate home tap water.

Meanwhile following pressure from activist shareholders, Whitbread announced in April that it would spin off Costa, leaving it to concentrate on its hotel chain Premier Inn.

Whitbread was forced to act after US group Elliott became its biggest shareholder with a six percent stake.

“The announcement today represents a substantial premium to the value that would have been created through the demerger of the business and we expect to return a significant majority of net proceeds to shareholders,” Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain said in the statement.

“Whitbread will also reduce debt and make a contribution to its pension fund, which will provide additional headroom for the expansion of Premier Inn.”

Whitbread bought Costa in 1995 from founders Sergio and Bruno Costa and presently runs about 2,400 stores in the UK and some 1,400 around the world.

Costa also operates more than 8,000 Costa Express self-serve machines in eight countries, as well as placing its products in supermarkets.

Premier Inn has 785 hotels in the UK and a sprinkling of others in Germany and the Middle East.

The Senior Adviser, Empowerment, ITC, Nicholas Schlapher, explained that the opportunities that abounds in the commonwealth market are limitless, pointing out that ITC would be working across commonwealth countries including Nigeria to provide solutions on policy issues specifically to help drive women in business.

According to him, ITC would be providing technical assistance to Nigeria’s agricultural, power and service sectors, stressing that agriculture is key to drive economic growth in Nigeria considering the huge role it plays by contributing over 20 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employing 45 per cent of the population.

With Nigeria moving up 24 places in the World Bank’s Doing Business report and also emerging as one of the top 10 most improved economies globally, the federal government affirmed its support for the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to take the country much higher on the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) ladder.

According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the present administration is working closely with the Commission to identify glitches in registration and post registration of businesses in the country to remove all bottlenecks hindering the business community.

Oduwole who stated this at the CAC customer forum in Lagos, commended the CAC for shutting down all its manual registration portals across the 36 states of the federation, pointing out that the complete automation of the pre-registration and registration functions of the CAC will definitely save businesses’ cost and time while also going a long way to reduce the need for human contact.

In her words, “The CAC is dedicated to delivering quality services and adequately deploy its resources both human and material to ensure that it is consistently meeting up with consumer’s expectations.

Specifically in the area of starting a business, the Enabling business environment secretariat supported the CAC to enhance the process of business registration.”

Earlier, the Acting Registrar-General, CAC, Azuka Azinge, said: The forum is held periodically in furtherance of efforts towards deepening communication with our customers and other stakeholders. It provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to have a one -on- one interaction with Management of the Commission on service delivery.”

She added that the Commission in line with its statutory mandate has deliberately embarked upon several reform initiatives aimed at easing business registration in Nigeria.

“This explains the Commission’s strategic policies like decentralization of its operations; deployment of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) and the integration of the Company Registration Portal (CRP) to the Stamp Duty Portal of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to further ease the process of company registration.

In her words,” The goal is to ensure that every Nigerian has access to online registration especially the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to enable more businesses to come into the formal sector with all the attendant benefits. This is in tandem with the reform agenda of the Federal Government aimed among other things at growing the Nigerian economy through increased economic activities, employment creation, provision of infrastructure and making Nigeria one of the world’s top investment destinations.”

Also speaking at the event, the Board Chairman, CAC, Dapo Abiodun, reaffirmed the Board’s determination to pursue its mandate vigorously for the benefit of the Nigerian economy.

“The Commission is passionate about Customers and keen on getting feedbacks from you to enable us improve our services to your delight hence, the importance the Commission attaches to this Forum cannot be overemphasized,” he said.

Lagos State government has granted N4.9 billion loans to 5,800 small and medium scale businesses. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), Akin Oyebode, has disclosed.

He said in an interview that the loans were granted under the LSETF, which Governor Akinwunmi Ambode created to boost the businesses of unemployed residents in the state.

He promised that the number of beneficiaries would hit 15, 000 at the end of the year.

“We even expect an improvement in the later years, if businesses key into our innovation-driven enterprise framework-Lagos Ennovate, which is a set of programmes designed to support innovation-driven start-ups in the state.

“Our goal is to make Lagos the destination for innovation and technology in Africa. Already, we have raised $1 million from the United Nations Development Programme to drive this,” he said.

Oyebode, who said the Ambode-led economy is critical about transforming Lagos into a digital economy, added that there were certain criteria that must be met before any business could access the loan.

He explained: “We are looking for credibility and clarity. We are looking for those who have not misrepresented their performance; people who know exactly what they are using the loan for, without inflating the cost of goods or the services that they want to pay for.

“We are looking people who, when we go and do credit checks, they have not been owing banks without repaying, they have not issued bounced cheques or lied about where they live or the size of their businesses.”

According to him, the LSETF verifies all the claims of applicants and does not necessarily make impossible demands.

“We are not asking anybody to bring their grandmother’s hair, or a collateral. But we are only asking for, is integrity. This is a tax payers’ funded project, so we need to show that we are looking at the right things to ensure that we get value from it,” Oyebode said.

He disclosed that statistics of the loans repayment have been impressive, adding that thousands of jobs have been created through LSETF loans.

Meanwhile, Ekiti State government said it has disbursed N200million to 10, 000, from the first phase of its Women Empowerment Programme.

Under the schemed, each of the women would get N20, 000.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Modupe Alade disclosed this in a programme on Ekiti Television (EKTV).

The SSG explained that the beneficiaries were selected from across all sectors of the state without recourse to any political affiliation.

]]> http://bartonheyman.com/article-update-investors-list-ways-to-curb-rising-unclaimed-dividends/ Mon, 26 Feb 2018 09:49:03 +0000 http://bartonheyman.com/?p=4884 […]]]>

To find a lasting solution to the rising figure of unclaimed dividend in the nation’s capital market, investors have urged the regulators to simplify letters of administration for the families of deceased persons to facilitate access to their dividend claims.

The shareholders, who stressed the need for a review of the modalities of dividend claims of deceased person in capital market, noted that the entire process, requirements, and time lag are very discouraging, especially the aspect involving the court.

They noted that if the current stringent procedures for dividend claims of deceased person are reviewed, it would help reduce the increasing level of unclaimed dividend currently put at N103billion to the barest minimum.

According to them, a good number of beneficiaries abandon their dividend with the registrars during processing because in most cases, the cost of processing the claims is higher compared with the value of the share. They therefore suggested that the regulators should collaborate with other market stakeholders on how to make the process less stringent in order to find a lasting solution to the rising rate of unclaimed dividend. For instance, the President, Proactive Shareholders Association, Taiwo Oderinde, in a chat with The Guardian said: “It is true, the process, requirements and time lag is very discouraging. I have unpleasant experiences when helping the families of some of our deceased members.

“I believe it can be reviewed and made less cumbersome in this era of IT, BVN, among others. Some people are discouraged by this complex process, which is resulting to more unclaimed dividends. “Regulators should call a stakeholders meeting and review the present modality for a better and modern ways of resolving it such as the use of the next of kin, BVN, biometric details, among others,” he added.

The President, Constance Shareholders Association, Shehu Mallam Mikail, said the most cumbersome aspect is the one that involves court administration. “Actually, the procedure for claiming the dividend of the dead person is too stressful and cumbersome, and the next of kin might not even know how to process it. “It involves court process, and here in Nigeria, there are many delays, which may frustrate the next of kin to abandon the entire process, and this is part of the reason why there is still huge unclaimed dividend figure in the capital market.”

The President, Noble Shareholders Association, Timothy Adeshiyan, said: “Our investments laws are so foreign, our laws are too stringent on processing the deceased claims and investments, and the law is too difficult.“I lost my wife in 2002, and up till now, all her shares are still there, I cannot claim the dividend; all my efforts with the registrar and others are not yielding any result because nobody is ready to help me.

“The cost of processing this is too much compared with the value of the shares, and that is why I decided to forget it there. What can I do? I am not the only person facing such problems even among other shareholders.

“The government has to adjust the rules guiding deceased ones who have this kind of unclaimed dividend. They should put certain rules, the death certificate, the affidavit from court by the direct beneficiaries; they should be a bit liberal about this,” he suggested.

]]> http://bartonheyman.com/nigeria-update-boi-plans-increased-lending-to-food-sector-for-enhanced-production/ Tue, 28 Nov 2017 11:28:26 +0000 http://bartonheyman.com/?p=4422 […]]]> •To boost risk assets with additional N350bn

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has concluded plans to increase lending to stakeholders in the food industry, as part of measures to boost food production in the country and help the Federal Government achieve the 3.5 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target in 2018.

Indeed, the Development Finance Institution (DFI) noted that most developed economies of the world have been able to transform their economies by prioritizing developmental efforts towards productive sectors, saying that to achieve the 3.5 per cent GDP, additional financial support must be channelled to different productive sectors of the Nigerian economy.

The Managing Director, BoI, Olukayode Pitan during the bank’s Food Processing Group customers’ forum, explained that manufacturing is the back bone for economic growth while also assuring that 2018 would be a good year for manufacturing in Nigeria.

The BoI boss who was represented by the Bank’s Executive Director, Large Enterprises, Simon Aranonu said plans are underway to raise its current risk asset worth over N650 billion with an additional N350 billion to support the real sector of the economy while also increasing its balance sheet by 50 per cent in 2018.

China’s biggest e-commerce company said net profit for the three months ending September 30 reached 17.67 billion yuan, ($2.67 billion), up from 7.62 billion yuan in the same period of 2016.

“We had an outstanding quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu said in a statement.