Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of Bulls and Bears. This is a weekly thread where i look at happenings on the NGX and US equity space. If you have any questions, please feel free to share.

Occasionally, i veer into other asset classes. Today, being one of such days due to yesterday’s historic event.

A whistle stop at crypto

US President Donald Trump yesterday on his truth social account mentioned the country would buy a few cryptocurrencies for a strategic reserve. The currencies in question are $BTC, $ETH, $ADA, $XRP, and $SOL. The news set the coins on a frenzy.

The event is historic and to be frank somewhat of a grey area because: before the news was announced a few parties had taken a massive long bet against bitcoin and ethereum. A long bet means that youre betting a cryptocurrency would rise. Which was odd because crypto had been in the dumps last week.

The second reason the move was a grey one was because typically should not have been the US President announcing this. Treasury secretary would have been much better. But trump is trump anyways. As the traders would say, buy the news and sell the rumour.

We could still see some rally in crypto stocks when markets open and the US is awake proper. 

Last week on the NGX

Last week, the NGX All-Share Index declined by 0.62%. The index measures the average performance of stocks on the exchange.

PZ Cussons Nigeria led the gainers. It appreciated by 31.1% to close at N35.40

SUNU Assurances led the losers. It fell by 19.55% to close at N5.31.

Earnings season kicked off proper on the NGX last week. SO this thread will be about lots of earnings. 

Id start with Champion Breweries which dropped audited FY 2024 numbers after trading 

Shareholders would be happy that they are going to get a 6 kobo dividend. Tiny when you look at the dividend yield of 2%. Fairly large when you consider it is 66.6% of the 9 kobo the company made in 2024

Revenue and profit after tax had decent increase

The company made N20.7 billion in revenue in FY 2024. Up over 60% from the N12.7 billion it made in the prior year. 

In the statement it mentioned that the bulk of income came from 2 products. Champion beer and Champ Malta). 

Profit after tax rose by 120% from N370 million in 2023 to N816 million in 2024.

Ellah Lakes dropped its half year results for the period ended January 2025. Still in loss making mode. It made an operating loss of N675 million. 

To the NGX Group, parent company of the Nigerian Stock Exchange

2024 was a record year. Not surprising considering the vibrant stock market. In the earnings release, the company provided a bit colour. 

The Group’s gross earnings surged by 103.2% to N24.0 billion in FY 2024, up from N11.8 billion in the previous year, propelled by significant growth across key revenue streams: 

▪ Transaction fees rose 64.0%, driven by heightened market activity.

 ▪ Listing fees increased by 397.1%, reflecting stronger capital market participation. ▪ Technology related income grew by 105%, reflecting the success of the group’s digital transformation efforts ▪

 Other fees recorded a 174.8% growth, reinforcing the Group’s diversified revenue base. ▪ Treasury investment income climbed 45.6%, 

▪ Market data revenue grew by 100.5%, contributing to a 102.6% rise in other income, which now accounts for 29.6% of gross earnings.

Profit after tax grew by over 90%. From N5.2 billion in 2023 to N9.9 billion in 2024. 

The company has proposed a N2 dividend (a 100% increase from the N1) paid in the prior year.,  amounting to a payout of N4.4 billion. About 44% of its profit after tax. 

Mecure Industries had decent topline growth, but a slight dip in profit in FY 2024

Revenue increased by 45% from N31.7 billion in 2023 to N46 billion in 2024

Profit after tax fell by 20% from N2.9 billion in 2023 to N2.3 billion in 2024. This was due to a broad increase in costs across base. Cost of sales, admin expenses. Marketing expenses. Finance costs which rose by over a 100% year on year. 

The firm has proposed a 15 kobo dividend unchanged from the prior year. 

MTN Nigeria back in the green

MTN Nigeria, released its audited numbers for the 2024 financial year. There was decent increase in revenue, but losses worsened.

Total revenue for the year went up by 36% from N2.4 trillion in 2023 to N3.3 trillion in 2024. Voice and data accounted for the bulk of revenue. 

Loss after tax worsened from N137 billion in 2023 to N400.4 billion in 2024. This was due to the movement in the exchange rate.

Q4 2024 however marked a return to profit.

Other companies that dropped earnings were Dangote Cement, BUA Cement. Id include the links here once they go up.

Dangote Cement FY 24 numbers were soft (weak) due to slow growth in volumes and higher costs. BUA Cement also had soft growth in profit in FY 2024

What’s happening this week?

Expect more earnings. Africa Prudential and Seplat will drop earnings this week. Seplat and Dangote Cement will have calls.

US markets last week

The S&P 500 slipped 1.0%, 

The NASDAQ composite declined 3.5%. 

The Dow was an outlier rising +1.0%. 

Nvidia results came in better than I expected though ended up falling 8.7% last week. 

What’s happening this week?

A couple of popular names will drop earnings. They include Okta, Gitlab, Target, Bestbuy, Crowdstrike.

Others are Footlocker, Broadcom, Costco and Gap.

I’d pop into some of the earnings calls and tweet via this handle.

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