Catch up with the news!

By Micheal Eboh
The Nigerian Stock Ex change (NSE) yesterday listed 4,966,666,668 shares of 50 kobo each at N2.50 per share of MTech Communications Plc, a leading mobile Value Added Services (VAS) company in Nigeria.

However, Mtech Communication shares closed N0.12 higher at N2.62 due to demand by investors who are apparently taking early position in the company.

Speaking at the listing ceremony, Managing Director of the company, Mr. Chika Nwobi, said that MTech is the leading provider of mobile VAS in Nigeria and works with mobile network operators, media organisation and large corporate bodies to develop, launch and run value added services for mobile users.

He said that some of services for the mobile operators include:  MTN Funtones, MTN Caller Tunes, Zain Central station and Glo Magic Plus. MTech also provides SMS voting on TV shows like Nigerian Breweries Plc’s Star Quest and works with media organisations like CoolFM and HITV to deliver interactivity services.

Nwobi said that since its inception in 2001, the company has experienced tremendous growth and is providing services to over 70 million subscribers across Africa.

He disclosed that as December, 2008, MTech had commenced operations in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Cote D’Ivoire.

On the financial performance of the company, the MTech CEO said turnover rose from N27 million in 2004 to N605 million in 2007, showing an increase of 2,141 per cent.

From a loss of N7.6 million in 2004, the company ended 2007 financial year with a profit of N116 million.
“We plan to continue growing the business over the next five years by expanding to more markets in Africa and the Middle East as well as by developing new services to roll out into the fast growing telecoms market in Africa.”
He explained that the company’s focus in the last three years was on breaking into new African markets.

“Having successfully entered the West and East African sub-region we are poised to turn the lessons learned into a competitive advantage and roll-out our services into yet more countries in order to increase our market share in Africa while maintaining Nigeria as our idea and innovation hub,” he said.

Meanwhile, the NSE market capitalisation dipped further for the second day trading dropping by 0.4 per cent to close at N6.539 trillion to from N6.567 trillion. In the same vein, All share index dropped by 0.6 per cent .

175.35 base points to close at 28,674.60 points from 28,849.95 points.The banking sub-sector remained the most active with a turnover of 193.971 million shares worth N2.261 million in 6,922 deals. First Bank of Nigeria Plc maintained the number one spot on the activity chart with 31.637 million shares valued at N696.758 million traded in 1,537 deals.

However, the bears regained control of the market after one day of losing it to the bulls.Oando Plc led the price losers with N4.01 trailed by Guinness Nigeria Plc with a loss of N2.01.On the other hand, Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc led the price gainers with N1.09, trailed by UAC of Nigeria Plc with a gain of N1 to close at N39.50 per share.