Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of Bulls and Bears. This is a weekly thread on the US, European and Nigerian stock market spaces.

Thank you to everyone who showed up for the Bulls and Bears Monthly webinar. You can catch an audio replay on my substack here.

Starting somewhat different this week, as some news dropped yesterday. 

Zenith Bank announced the successful completion of its capital raise. The bank had a hybrid Offer, comprising of a Rights Issue of 5,232,748,964 shares at N36.00 per share ( and public offer of 2,767,251,036 Ordinary Shares of 50k each at N36.50 per share. 

The public Offer was 160.47% subscribed, with a total of 4,440,587,250 shares allotted The Rights Issue was 100.18% subscribed with a total 5,232,748,964 ordinary shares allotted N350,460,397,329 was raised. . 

The bank’s share capital would now rise to N614.65bn, which is N114.65bn above the regulatory minimum requirement. 

Best and worst stocks on the NGX last week

SCOA was the best performing stock last week. It appreciated by 59.58% to close at N3.96. Last i checked, the stock is the best performing stock for January. 

Sunu Assurances declined by 25.11% to close at N5.01. It was the worst performing stock last week. 

9,250,000,000 Lasaco shares were on Thursday, 23 January 2025, listed on the Daily Official List of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). 

The additional shares listed on NGX arose from a private placement of 9,250,000,000 shares at N1.20 per share. 

Following the listing,the total issued, and fully paid-up shares have now increased from 1,833,585,855 to 11,083,585,855 

International Breweries Plc  has granted an extension of time by NGX REgco to the Company to enable it to comply with the free float requirements for companies listed on the Main Board of Nigerian Exchange Limited (“NGX”)

Earnings 

Transcorp Power dropped its audited FY 2024 numbers

 Revenue increased by 115%, from N142.1 billion in FY 2023 to N305.9 billion in FY 2024. ▪ 

Profit after tax rose 165% from N30.2 billion in FY 2023 to N80 billion in FY 2024

The company has proposed a final dividend of N3.50 bringing total dividend for FY 2024 to N5.

Livestock Feeds FY 24 unaudited. 

Revenue went up over 100% from N20.4 billion in 2023 to N40.1 billion in 2024

PAT was N1.7 billion as against a N230 million loss in 2023

University Press 9M 2024

There was decent topline and bottomline growth. 

Revenue went up from N2.3 billion in 2023 to N 3 billion in 2024

Profit after tax was up by over 100% from N226 million in 2023 to N510 million in 2024.

The publisher could end up having one of its best years in half a decade.

International Energy Insurance FY 24 unaudited

Net insurance and investment result was up by over 50% from N2.4 billion in 2023 to N3.7 billion in 2024.

Profit after tax was also up by over 50% from N850 million in 2023 to N1.7 billion in 2024. 

A few other firms dropped earnings during the week. They include Secure Electronic Multiverse, Ronchess Global and Deap Capital. 

Board and management changes

Guiness Nigeria announced a couple of board changes. 

Dr Omobola Johnson – Board Chair & Independent Non-Executive Director Dr Omobola Johnson retires as Chair of the Board of Directors, effective 28 January, 2025 following the completion of her tenure as a Director. 

Dr Omobola Johnson has served on the Board for nine years and as Board Chair since 1 July, 2021.

Ms Ngozi Edozien retired as an Independent Non-Executive Director with effect from 27 November, 2024 following the completion of her tenure as a Director. 

Prof Fabian Ajogwu, SAN has been appointed as the incoming Board Chair & Independent Non-Executive Director effective 29 January, 2025. He joined the board in November 2018

 Mrs Olusola Oworu and Mrs Bola Adesola have been appointed Independent Non-Executive Directors with effect from 1 February, 2025 subject to shareholder approval at the next Annual General Meeting of the Company.

CAP Chemical and Allied Products Plc has appointed Sulaiman Iromini as the Chief Financial Officer of CAP effective January 13, 2025.

 Oluwaseun Osuji Is Chams Plc’s Acting Company Secretary. She  replaces Yetunde Emmanuel who served as the Company Secretary for the Company and will hold the office pending her confirmation and appointment as Full Company Secretary. 

Until her appointment, she worked as the Senior Legal Manager in charge of the leadership of the Chams Holdco Legal Team and the Company secretariat.

What’s happening this week on the NGX? 

.Aradel will release its FY 2024 unaudited numbers sometime today. Geregu will hold a board meeting to consider audited FY 2024 numbers

Airtel Africa will drop its 9M 24/25 numbers on Thursday. 

Over to the US 

The S&P 500 gained 1.7%

The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.7%. 

The  Dow surged +2.2%. 

You had a bunch of earnings drop during the week including: American Airlines and United Airlines,  3M, Charles Schwab, Verizon, American Express, Ally and  Netflix

For FY 2024, United Airlines operated the most flights and carried the most customers in its history at nealry 174 million system wide and an average of 4,340 daily flights

Revenue went up by 5.7% from $49 billion in 2023 to $51.8 billion in 2024

PAT went up by 20.3% from $2.6 billion in 2023 to $3.1 billion in 2024

EPS went up by19.8% from $7.8 in 2023 to $9.5 in 2024

Popped into the Netflix call and did a post on it

Two numbers stood out for me

The average Netflix member spends 2 hours daily

The company plans to spend $18 billion cash on content for FY 2025

What’s happening this week?

Tech stocks are currently trading downwards in premarket following news around DeepSeek, a Chinese AI system. Results show a much better performance compared to US players.

The Fed (US central bank) will be meeting. 

Its a packed week in terms of earnings. 

 4 of the Mag 7 stocks have earnings scheduled for the week 

Microsoft, Meta and Tesla  on Wednesday, followed by Apple on Thursday. 

Other big names dropping within the week include Sofi, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ASML, Visa, Mastercard,, Blackstone, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron