Some info on the upcoming IPO:


Exchange approves N60b Transcorp offer
By Gbenga Agbana/The Guardian

NIGERIAN Stock Exchange (NSE), has given its final nod to a bid by Transnational Corporation Plc (Transcorp) to raise N60 billion from the investing public between Monday December 18, 2006 and the end of January 2007.

The company is raising the fund through an offer for public subscription of eight billion ordinary shares.

Vice President, Corporate Communications of Transcorp, Mr. Adebayo Ojo disclosed the development yesterday at a seminar organised by the organisation for finance journalists.

According to him, preparatory to the commencement of the offer, parties to the offer which include issuing houses, solicitors to the offer, stockbrokers, receiving bankers, financial advisers and directors, will meet today to append their signatures on the documents relating to the offer, in readiness to the commencement of the offer next Monday.

Already, Ojo said that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), had earlier approved the offer which is the biggest so far in the history of the country's capital market.

Ojo said: "We received the approval of the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday(December 12) and the offer opens next Monday. It involves eight billion shares at N7.50 each."

On why the company is coming to the market, the Vice President, Strategy, Research and Planing of the company, Mr. Kolawole Lawani, explained that the company is poised to provide world class delivery mechanism into the global economic which chair through increase in the value of resources.

Besides, he said the company is planning to reposition Nigeria in Africa and Africa n the world, while extending the benefits of economic reforms to the grassroots through the capital market, while reducing capital flight and maximise Nigerian ownership of critical economic assets.

On the company's growth plans after the offer, Lawani, who represented the group executive director of Transcorp at the occasion said: "Transcorp will build economies of scale in the largest sectors said Transcrop will produce research and development facilities which will improve the business environment for Nigerian, while meeting world class standards and specifications to assure opportunity to compete globally."

SEC Wants Transcorp Directors to Stand Down
By Eromosele Abiodun, 12.15.2006



The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has demanded that some directors of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), stand down from its board before it can authorise the proposed Initial Public Offer (IPO), billed to commence December 18, 2006.
The Nigerian Stock Exc-hange (NSE), had Tuesday gave Transcorp approval to float its IPO of 8 billion unit shares.
THISDAY gathered last night that SEC was said to have raised concern over issues of corporate governance and conflicts of interest.
SEC had also raised issues of chief executive officers of banks sitting on Transcorp’s board, as well as the Director General of the NSE. Dr. Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, sitting as its chairman.

Analysts said last night that for this to happen, the board of the corporation would have to be dissolved.

With this latest development, it may be difficult for the company to come to the capital market to raise funds.
Transcorp shares, which a unit would be sold at N7.50, is expected to garner a total of about N60 billion to the coffers of the company.
Besides, investor’s subscription for the IPO of the Transcorp shares will be in the minimum of 1,000 unit, while every other purchase will be an addition of 100 units. The offer was meant to close at the end of January 2007,.

The corporation’s Vice President, Corporate Communications, Mr. Adedayo Ojo, had told newsmen Tuesday that Transcorp intended to be the vehicle that would reposition Nigeria as an economic powerhouse within Africa, ready to compete in the global market.
“Transcorp will leverage on its ability to mobilise local and international capital and its highly talented Nigerian workforce to build a world class conglomerate with multiple competencies and global presence in its five target sector, which include: agriculture, energy, trade, telecom IT and hospitality and entertainment,” he added.

Jack of all trades but a master of none, definitely not a good formulae for corporate success. I'll get the stocks if I can and sell it as soon as OBJ's hold on PDP wanes.

Just to find out if anybody in the house has seen the prospectus for transcorp's IPO. I am eager to lay my hand on it . Thank you.

I Pray You Dont Get Your Hands Burnt

i think i agree with you,but the problem about Nigerians is that we fail to engineer our own minds and liberate our own selves,Fela don talk am.pady paddy govt,wayo govt, well we should always try and look at what we throw money on,if transcorp is getting so much noise,then u should know there is a loud banger coming, well i am playing it safe,i would rather put my money on my younger ones education than some future dividens that wont amount to notin, wake up

i think i agree with you,but the problem about Nigerians is that we fail to engineer our own minds and liberate our own selves,Fela don talk am.pady paddy govt,wayo govt, well we should always try and look at what we throw money on,if transcorp is getting so much noise,then u should know there is a loud banger coming, well i am playing it safe,i would rather put my money on my younger ones education than some future dividens that wont amount to notin, wake up

We all should understand the type of investors we are before venturing out. That TransCorp is risky is no news so lets stop flogging this topic. All of this is clearly stated in the IPO prospectus.

A friend of mine sometime back bought a stock for 42 cents, despite EVERYONE (including myself) telling him how desperately poor that decision was. How ALL the fundamentals showed the company would fail. How there was no descernable history. How the dot com bubble was about to blow up in his face.  In 1.5 years when he sold, the shares were selling for $2.10.

The difference between people like that and the rest of us is they thrive on risk because of the potential returns, even if the likelyhood of loss is also big. They see with their minds and not their eyes. Their minds are primed to see beyond the surface, where the visibilty of the average joe blogg stops. They don't play 'safe'. That's the difference between the 4% that make up the rich in the world and most of the other 96% that will throw companies like TransCorp in the dustbin.

That's why he is a $ millionaire (and the likes of Branson, Trump etc are billionaires), whilst the rest of us wallow in mediocrity, in the relative safety zone of work until I retire @ 60 (or die) and get a pension mentality.

Let's not condemn risks just because we lack the guts to take them. Let's not condemn risks because our stock market investments are driven strictly by fundamentals / technicals.

There are a select few extremely successfull investors who thrive and flourish on these 'risks'.

Free Advice
=========
Do not invest any amount of money on Transcorp or any other company's shares
for that matter if (1) your life will be in disarray should that investment go bust or
(2) if you are already finding it hard to put food on the table. (3) If you are 3 months
behind on your rent.

If you fall into those categories, I hate to break the news to you but you are not
part of the targeted investors! You guys make me laugh. I will implore you take
care of the body and soul first before burdening your self with mundane issues like
Transcorp and IPO.

I will implore you take
care of the body and soul first before burdening your self with mundane issues like
Transcorp and IPO

Very true. I had previously stated that this IPO, or any for that matter, is not for everyone!!

I know an Igbo man who buys shares in companies but forgets to collect his dividends every year. The certificates just pile up because apparently he buys and doesn't really know what to do with it. You can get money for those certificates anytime, right?

So what's the 'Igbo' reference meant to suggest, I'm a little lost on the relevance of that.

Anyway, is this meant as a genuine question or a joke?

It's not a joke, it's a genuine question, I know someone who does that and I just want to make sure there isn't a time limit as to when you can collect your dividends.

well,he better convert them to the CSCS system before he use them to smoke igbo,

This might sound cynical or rude but sincerely i see no reason why i should invest into transcorp. I have my reasons though, at the time of shares and offers of bank mergers i bought a huge sum of shares from all states bank and i am yet to see neither d money nor my dividends even though CBN promised to get everyone settled in 3 months as at december '05. if transcorp is actually out for the interest of d ppl, why not create a whole new avenue rather than buy that which has been on ground? why sell shares of 8billion just after the departure of dangote and some few others from transcorp?

A stock or share as high as 8billion would never go scarce at the stock exchange so forget the illusion that you would ever sell for gain cuz everyone has the shares and i know, in little time most would want to sell out for even less the purchased price but if one should really invest i think companies like cadbury, lever brothers, hpz and few oil companies would be better of, depending on the buyer though and the foresight. if transcorp is really selling so investors could make profit, i think 2billion shares should be fine, that way little people would have the shares and it wont be like a pure water where you ll find everywhere. like"iyke-de' has giving yardstick to buying shares. y buy a share of 1,000 naira when you sure know it can never rise upto a 100,000 no matter how scares the share becomes? you want to invest ? great do that @ your will and pretend like you have lost some money somewhere even though you can still see it so you dont develop an attack. . . Nigerian Politics wouldnt help Transcorp to succeed and with ndi okereke as the head. . . i am yet to know what exactly the mission is!

Trans_Corrupt?

How Many Changes in The Manlte of Leadership of Its Short Short History?

Well Life Is A Risk. I Wonder What Death Is?

Just Wondering, Though

Here is an article from Daily Trust. If Union Securities Limited spoke person's statement has any merit
to it, then WOW!!! There must be a lot of "dumb" investors like us out there. Knowing Nigerians, I
knew some of these so-called critics of Transcorp will run their mouth in the morning, but will call their
brokers later in the day to place their IPO order


Nigeria: Transcorp IPO Extended By Two Weeks

Daily Trust (Abuja)

January 26, 2007
Posted to the web January 26, 2007

Anas A. Galadima

Transnational Corporation has got a two-week extension for its on-going Initial Public Offer of N60billion ordinary shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), granted the extension to the corporation to enable it absorb more investors who have indicated interest to acquire shares in the company.

Speaking at an investor's forum organized by the company in Abuja yesterday, Tunde Iyama of Union Securities Limited, one of the brokering firms engaged to carry out the offer, said the extension will allow for more subscription of the company's shares, saying that a 300 percent subscription rate is expected at the end of the two-weeks period.

If that happens, the company would generate a total of N180billion from the offer which started four weeks ago.

Already, the IPO is the biggest offer ever to be conducted on the floor of the NSE.

Nicholas Okoye, the company's Executive Director, Operations, said the company intends to play in the global market as well as in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria amongst other sectors.

The corporation had gone to the market with the initial intention to raise N60 billion through an Initial Public Offering of 8 billion ordinary shares of 50k each at N7. 50k per share. The offer is scheduled to end on January 31, 2007.

A statement from the company said, while descri-bing it as "a generational public offer", Transcorp's Group Managing Director, Mr. Bernard Longe, explained at the beginning of the IPO that "the choice of December was deliberate as the corporation wants everybody to partake and share in the gift of the year."

Proceeds from the offer, according to him, would be used to improve the opera-tions of the corporation.

"Chairman of the corpo-ration, Dr. Ndi Okereke-Onyuike, while corroborating Longe's views, said the offer was a special package for the yuletide season. She urged Nigerians to embrace the IPO, while guaranteeing them good returns on their investments. The offering, according to her, will give Nigerians the opportunity to buy into the Transcorp dream," the statement said.

"Besides, she said the offer was being undertaken to finance the expansion of Transcorp's Hilton Hotel, energy through services and supplies to the

upstream oil and gas industry, downstream infra-structure investments, Agric-processing and export, movie studio, international trading and trans-shipment, provi-sion of technical infrastruc-ture and services, refinancing existing acquisition costs, research and development, business systems office infrastructure and provision of additional working capital for the company's opera-tions."

Transcorp, whose vision is to create a globally compe-titive business conglomerate through world class produc-tion facilities based in Nigeria and managed by Nigerians, was according to Longe, conceived to operate strictly "as an engine of economic growth to reposi-tion Nigeria in Africa and indeed the world, by harness-ing and deploying the huge resources available to us as a people to jump start the emergence of a new economic order and several new mega corporations".

"The firm's business model is anchored on the core areas of the commanding heights of the economy, which include oil and gas, power/energy, agriculture and agro allied, information and communications techn-ology, as well as international trade and hospitality," Longe was quoted in the statement.

"Transcorp was incorpo-rated on the November 17, 2004, in response to the need to establish a mega corpora-tion created in Nigeria and owned by Nigerians which will respond to market opportunities that requires heavy capital investment, not just at home but in the African region and around the world," the statement concluded.

i get the point, several years of bad leadrship taking its toll on the populace even the minds of young vibrant nigerians like ours (Seun U'RE ONE OF THEM) who happens to hold the keys to the future. we seem to bliv theRE's an hidden agenda in everything govt has interest(s) ,of course it's no fault of ours see wat apartheid did to south africans (no disrespect at all). Dont u ever think this agendas dont always work as planned.
e.g if transcorp was obj's agenda to be socio-economically relevant wat makes u think he has all the chips in his pocket and some Atiku or dantata will not upturn his table d way he did the IBB's or some drastic change happens and a Soludo or Rufai bcoms president and abandon his agenda.
Now back to tcorp if it was a silent contraption of our political bloc head leaders wat makes u think 'WE' as in me or you or someone reading this thread cant turn it round for good.
i tell u the corporation of Japan ,america ,korea were not initiated with you in mind,no but now they ve far reaching effects on our lives down here in nigeria and wheresoever u re rait now so dont kill d lofty dream of a 100% nigerian corporation b4 it starts. something good might come out of it or its ashes if ever it dies
I'm 100% sure .TAKE A GAMBLE IT FIT B YOU O o! (

thanks Iyke for the info lets wait and see all the transcorp critics run fi kova as it goes BUYAKA IN DEM FIACE!

@donzman
is GE general electric jack of all trade?
open ur mind PLEEEAZZZEE!

If you take a look at everything GE does, you can see that in the end they have to do with Engineering and engineering related fields. There is no relation in most of the things Transcorp owns, just things in different sectors. It's like they're buying just to own instead of buying with hope of being the best in the sector and expanding even further.

get the point, several years of bad leadrship taking its toll on the populace even the minds of young vibrant nigerians like ours (Seun U'RE ONE OF THEM) who happens to hold the keys to the future. we seem to bliv theRE's an hidden agenda in everything govt has interest(s) ,of course it's no fault of ours see what apartheid did to south africans (no disrespect at all). Dont u ever think this agendas don't always work as planned.

Don't be naive please.

@donzman,

This is straight from GE's website.

* GE Commercial Finance
* GE Healthcare
* GE Industrial
* GE Infrastructure
* GE Money
* NBC Universal

Here is what is listed under GE Money

* Credit Cards
* Retail Sales Finance Programs
* Home Loans
* Personal Loans
* Motor Loans and Leases
* Corporate Cards
* Credit Insurance

Please help us draw your conclusion how credit cards, car loans, home
loans, etc. are now Engineering related. By the way NBC is into movies,
theme parks, etc.

Iyke-D:

@donzman,

This is straight from GE's website.

* GE Commercial Finance
* GE Healthcare
* GE Industrial
* GE Infrastructure
* GE Money
* NBC Universal

Here is what is listed under GE Money

* Credit Cards
* Retail Sales Finance Programs
* Home Loans
* Personal Loans
* Motor Loans and Leases
* Corporate Cards
* Credit Insurance

Please help us draw your conclusion how credit cards, car loans, home
loans, etc. are now Engineering related. By the way NBC is into movies,
theme parks, etc.

I made a mistake in my prior post but GE prides itself in engineering and financial service. Even at that, GE's setup and that of Transcorp is not the same.

GE Money and co. are subsidiaries/divisions of GE itself. Think of it this way, Roman Abrahamovic owns both Chelsea and whatever Oil firm he owns. Both companies are separate entities with separate boards and the only thing they share in common is the owner. Peter Kenyon is the Chief Executive at Chelsea and "makes" all the key decisions (even though it will be a bit naive to imagine that he does so without Abrahamovic's consent). GE Money does not have the same individuals on its board of directors with GE Commercial Finance.

Another good example is Virgin, they have Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Electronics, Music Store and etcetera. These are basically subsidiaries with a very high level of autonomy and decision making process by different board of directors who are FOCUSED in their specific fields without interference from Richard Branson himself on a daily basis.

This isn't the case with Transcorp. Transcorp Hilton or NITEL is neither a division nor subsidiary of Transcorp itself. The Board of Directors for Transcorp Hilton is not autonomous and has the same board of directors controlling it and NITEL. Such a setup is not good for business, Jack of All Trade, Master of None. Transcorp's board controls Hilton, NITEL and every other enterprise they own. There is no focus in such a setup to the best of my knowledge. Where is the focus in this setup?

Hopefully you see the difference but seeing the way you love Transcorp, seems like you have some personal interest in the whole thing.

I wish them luck either ways but only if they gain some type of focus.

You can read up on conglomerates here even though they use GE as an example and I object to that. They ended up clarifying that GE had to modify their setup in order to become successful after how many years. Transcorp needs to do away with the current setup or else?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conglomerate_%28company%29 . . .Take note of the statement that most conglomerates prove unsuccessful due to poor organization which is what I predict for Transcorp unless they change it up.

i want to buy transcorp but my broker always rings it out to me that its bad news,
well i would definitely go ahead,
its my money and i will call the shots here and just assume i have put the money away,
i will risk it,
life is all about the risks we take and learning from them,
transcorp ,it is.

DO you have a good reason to believe that your broker doesn't know what he's saying?

i would not say he does not know what he is saying,
but i will take the risk
and bear the consequences,
sometimes these things are done due to gut feeling
wish us all

Experienced stock traders will tell you to never allow your feelings to affect your judgement about when to buy or sell. That's what separates the professional gamblers from those who just lose their money.

state clearly your view,
sometimes the most controversial turns out to be the most lucrative,
will buy on tuesday,

@donzman,

I am glad you somersaulted, may be you should have checked Wiki first before firing off.
With your criticism of Transcorp, I still don't see how Engineering and Finance or even
healthcare at that has anything in common, but somehow GE and several conglomerates
or holding companies still manage to pull them off. Of course, the trick is how the separate
entites are managed.

Believe it or not, the essence of having a controlling interest is to be able to direct the
pulse of the organization at will or whim. That goes for GE, Virgin, and Transcorp. Now lets
assume for a minute that Transcorp is actually involved in the day to day running of the
Hilton and NITEL, don't you think this is appropriate at least at this stage of the game?
Common, they just purchased two comatose companies - one is barely 6 months old and
you don't expect them to get in somebody's face?

Of course, its not a secret that I like a handful of people on this site have personal stake
in Transcorp, duh? What's love got do with it (I want to make money)? The thrust of the
article which I posted was to again highlight the fact that despite all the nay-sayers,
Transcorp IPO is set to become another blockbuster event just like the private placement
- that is if the article is correct.

For a company that many are spelling doom for come end of May, that is more than enough
"foolish" investors throwing their money away(I am in good company). Seriously, a 100%
IPO subscription is a huge success. A 300% subscription on the hand is a big catastrophic
success (as George Bush will say ). It is essentially a vote of confidence in spite of the
company's history or lack of history/track record, won't you agree with me on that?

Yes, losses will be made in the next 2 years, mistakes will be made along the way as well,
but the pay off will be huge if it all works out well in the next 4 to 5 years. For those critics
questioning (rightly I must say) the depth of the Nigerian capital market and how much it
can absorb, here is your final proof - mind you I also read last week that Dangote IPO was
300% over subscribed as well.

.

@Iyke-D: You're just trying to get more than enough people to subscribe so you can make quick gains.

@Igbonla

There is no denying the fact that there will be subscribers who are buying with little or no information
about how the capital market works or the risks involved. But then Transcorp is not the exception to
the rule with respect to uneducated investors, however, I will concede that the publicity surrounding
Transcorp is more.

By any standard, having the ability to generate interest in the capital market up to the tune of about
N200billion ($1.75billion) between private placement and IPO in one year by a single company that is
barely 2 years old speaks volume - you can call it vote of confidence or "surge of uninformed investors".
I believe it was very well stated in the prospectus that losses will be incurred in the first few years,
didn't think they kept that a secret. As a matter of fact, the first text on the prospectus warns about
the risks involved.

Yes, Transcorp benefited heavily from the fact that it was birthed by Obasanjo's vision, but its naive
to think a registered public company like Transcorp will go down when Obasanjo leaves, thats my
opinion. Transcorp will continue to confound the nay-sayers and like someone said earlier, when all
the fundamentals are in place in about 4/5 years, I will be more than willing to sell my shares for
N75 per share to any one of you if interested then. If that doesn't happen , the risk has been worth
it still.