The National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday released the Consumer Price Index for the month of November. The report, signed by the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, said inflation rate in the country rose to 7.9 per cent year-on-year. This, it said, was a marginal increase of 0.1 percentage point from the 7.8 per cent recorded in October.
Updated 6 Years ago

European Union banks have shed more than $1.1 trillion of assets since the end of 2011 in a shift away from risky investments such as asset-backed debt as regulators push lenders to shore up their balance sheets. Lenders reduced assets weighted for risk by 817 billion euros ($1.1 trillion) between December 2011 and June 2013, the European Banking Authority, the bloc’s top banking regulator, said in a report yesterday. Banks’ core Tier 1 capital ratios, a measure of how well they can absorb losses, rose to 11.7 percent from 10 percent over the time period.
Updated 6 Years ago

Boeing Co's (BA.N) board raised the company dividend about 50 percent on Monday and approved $10 billion in new share buyback authority that the company said it would use in the next two to three years. The share repurchase represents about 10 percent of Boeing's outstanding stock, ranking it in the middle of buybacks by large U.S. companies, which are on a stock-buying spree this year.
Updated 6 Years ago

A 10 percent gain in heavyweight blue-chip company, Dangote Cement, led to a 2.2 percent gain in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index at the close of trading on Monday as investors bought into the company’s growth story. Shares in the bellwether cement company, which is Nigeria’s largest stock by market value and makes up about 30 percent of the stock market, closed trading at N220 per share, giving it a market value of N3.578 trillion.
Updated 6 Years ago

Insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N) said on Monday it will sell its aircraft-leasing business to AerCap Holdings NV (AER.N) for $5.4 billion, after four years of trying to divest its biggest non-insurance business in fits and starts. The insurer, which was nearly wiped out by derivative bets during the financial crisis, put International Lease Finance Corp on the block after receiving a $182 billion government bailout package in 2008. AIG repaid the rest of the money owed to the U.S. Treasury in March, but still wanted sell ILFC as part of its efforts to focus on insurance.
Updated 6 Years ago

Attempt by the Federal Government to douse the tension generated by the claim by the Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that the sum of $49.8 billion had not been remitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to the Federal purse ended in deadlock last night. The meeting, which was summoned on the orders of the Presidency following a strong letter by Sanusi to President Goodluck Jonathan to probe the missing sum, started at about midday and did not end until about 8pm.
Updated 6 Years ago

The controversial Chevron oil bloc bid round for which indigenous oil prospecting company, Brittania-U, reportedly made the highest winning bid of $1.6 billion got messier yesterday with the local firm suing the multinational oil company for breach of the bid arrangement. The defendants in the suit were listed as Chevron Nigeria Limited; Chevron USA, inc; BNP Paribas Securities Corp; Mr. Hermant Patel and Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited, all of which are involved in the transaction of the assets Oil Mining Lease OMLs 52,53, and 55.
Updated 6 Years ago

Emirates Airline, which has often picked up the Oscars of the travel industry, has swooped into the home of the original Oscars to launch its celebrated A380 service. Packed with Hollywood movies on ice Digital Widescreen, the double-decker aircraft touched down in Los Angeles on Wednesday, becoming the world’s longest A380 service in operation.
Updated 6 Years ago

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last week released some interesting data set on the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profiles for Nigeria’s 36 states between 2010 and 2012. At a first glance, the data was not surprising as states in southern Nigeria continue to show dominance in terms of economic activity. The oil producing states also featured prominently in the top ten in terms of states with the largest share of IGR.
Updated 6 Years ago

Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, a leading manufacturer of flour and a range of flour-based products, has unveiled its multi billion naira flour mills in Lagos. Speaking to journalists during the media facility tour organised by the company in Lagos recently, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell Flour Mills, Mr. Babatunde Odunayo, said the project, which gulped around N10 billion, was built to meet the quality standard for which Honeywell Flour Mills Plc is renowned.
Updated 6 Years ago