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Seplat’s IPO a win-win for Nigerian investors – Ebi

By BusinessNews Staff on April 25, 2014

Following the listing of Seplat Petroleum Plc on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the Chief Executive Officer, FutureView Financial Services Limited, Elizabeth Ebi, has declared that earnings accruable from Nigeria’s lucrative oil exploration and production sector will no longer be elusive to local investors.

FutureView Financial Services Limited acted as one of the co-managers and local receiving agents for the Seplat Initial Public Offering.

According to Ebi, the listing of Seplat’s shares on the NSE after its successful global Initial Public Offering (IPO) of $500 million is ‘the barrier breaker.’

Affirming Ebi’s position, analysts at FutureView Securities Limited – a subsidiary of FutureView Financial Services Limited – revealed, in a research note yesterday that the listing of the indigenous oil exploration and production company on the NSE would yield bountiful dividends and also create wealth for discerning Nigerians.

She urged local investors to acquire the shares from the floor of the Exchange.

“The decision of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, an oil exploration and production firm, to list its shares on the NSE on 14 April 2014, has opened a new vista of opportunity that was formerly unavailable to local investors in the Nigerian capital market.

“Before now, oil exploration and production companies including those also promoted by Nigerians preferred listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and London Stock Exchange (LSE), denying local investors in the capital market dividend earning as well as capital appreciation opportunities,” she said.

Commenting further on the Seplat offer, Ebi stated that “Seplat remains a thrilling prospect and has been trending as the prime topic in local and international investment circles.”

“There has been no IPO comparable to Seplat on the NSE in terms of niche, sophistication and scale. It was not your everyday IPO that was open to all investors. It was for highly sophisticated and discerning investors with a good understanding of the complexities involved in oil exploration and production.

“I can categorically state that the listing of Seplat on the NSE is a win-win situation for Nigeria and Nigerians. We are hopeful that it will herald the listing of international oil corporations, as well as oil majors promoted by Nigerians on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as against the selective preference for London and Johannesburg stock exchanges that was the practice in the recent past,” Ebi added.

[This Day]

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