Elon Musk set to take ownership of Twitter
Twitter on Monday, announced a takeover agreement with Elon Musk for the acquisition of the social media giant prized for approximately $44 billion.
According to the agreement, shareholders of the microblogging company will pocket $54.20 per share in cash for each of Twitter’s common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction.
“The purchase price represents a 38percent premium to Twitter’s closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9percent stake in Twitter,” a statement issued to confirm the sale said.
Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, said, “The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”
Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, said, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Musk. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
The statement noted that the transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Twitter Board of Directors, is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
“Musk has secured $25.5 billion of fully committed debt and margin loan financing and is providing an approximately $21.0 billion equity commitment. There are no financing conditions to the closing of the transaction,” the statement concluded.
Read also: Why dollar assets remain magnet for Nigerians
Eterna leads other stocks fueling rally on Nigerian Exchange
Nigeria’s stock market opened the new week on a positive note as investors continued to buy shares of Eterna Plc following recent plan by Preline Investment to acquire additional 1.3million shares of the company at premium price of N13.50 per share.
The Nigeria stock market which rose by 0.20percent or N45billion on Monday recorded further positive return at 13.68percent year-to-date (YtD).
Leading the gainers on Monday April 25, Eterna Plc share price rose from day-open low of N6.65 to N7.31, adding 66kobo or 9.92percent.
Meristem analysts had advised investors to HOLD the shares of Eterna Plc saying that they expect the price of the stock to jump significantly over the next couple of trading sessions.
“Clients who already have the stock are advised to HOLD. Alternatively, such clients could realise profit by selling, depending on their respective entry levels as not all the minority shares would be bought by Preline Limited. For this same reason, we advise clients who are looking to buy the stock to trade with caution,” Meristem analysts had said.
Other stocks that were seen on the top advancers list include Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc which rose from N6.37 to N7, after adding 63kobo or 9.89percent; and Oando Plc which rallied from N5.86 to N6.44, adding 58kobo or 9.90percent.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation increased from 48,459.65 points and N26.125trillion respectively to 48,543.36 points and N26.170trillion.
Zenith Bank, Oando, Axa Mansard, Transcorp and FBN Holdings were most traded stocks on the Exchange. In 5,711 deals, investors exchanged 328,391,904 units valued at N4.038billion.
African Development Bank Group chief garners strong global support for Africa
Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, concluded an official three-day visit to Washington, DC on Saturday.
The visit was an opportunity for the AfDB chief to not only attend the IMF and World Bank 2022 spring meetings but also sign several bilateral agreements with stakeholders on African development.
According to a press statement issued by the African Development Bank Group, Adesina successfully managed to get strong support for a robust 16th replenishment of the African Development Fund, the bank group’s concessionary lending arm that supports Africa’s low-income economies.
“Replenishment efforts continue through October when partners are expected to make their pledges.” The statement reassured
Adesina had a meeting with the United States Assistant Treasury Secretary, Alexia Latortue, and spoke after promising that the US government would continue to support the fund, which she claims has a strategic focus and delivers impact. She considered the fund to be critical to the continent’s development growth.
Latortue also used the opportunity to praise Adesina’s style of purposeful leadership, taking into account how he has handled the potential food crisis following the Russia-Ukraine war.
The bank also revealed that “Dr. Adesina also received similar strong support for the African Development Fund replenishment from other partners, including Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation, Matilda Ernkrans, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Norway’s Minister for International Development, Vicky Ford, Minister for Africa of the United Kingdom, and Paul Ryan, Director of International Finance and Climate of Ireland.”
They said that the African Development Fund should be able to raise more money for “low-income and fragile states.”
Adesina told the shareholders that the African development fund has been very successful in creating a long-lasting impact on the continent.
“The African Development Bank is doing incredible work and we strongly support the bank. Sweden supports the African Development Fund to leverage its resources from the market to provide more resources for countries. You are doing an excellent job. Swedish Minister Ernkrans said something about the fund.
Adesina also had the opportunity to meet the African Union’s Group of 15 Finance Ministers, where he outlined what the bank is doing to overcome the continent’s challenges. At the top of the list was a plan to ensure massive food production in the face of a looming global food crisis caused by the Russian war in Ukraine.
The ministers were impressed with Adesina’s plans and agreed that a joint action plan to finance the continent’s economic growth plan in the face of daring challenges should be supported.
Japan unemployment rate falls to 2.6% in March
The Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications in Japan reported that the unemployment rate fell to a 1-year low of 2.6 percent in March 2022, lower than the 2.7 percent reported in February.
China’s zero Covid-19 lockdown could be responsible for keeping factories in Japan busier than usual as demand diverts toward Japan.
According to tradingeconomics, the number of unemployed dropped by 4.8 percent or 90 thousand to 1.8 million, while those employed dropped slightly by 0.2 percent or 110 thousand to 66.84 million.
Other information contained in the report showed that the non-seasonally adjusted labor force participation rate also stood at 62.1%.
Biden plans adding global food aid to Ukraine’s funding request
Joe Biden is planning to add global food assistance as a way to address the rising food crisis in many poorer nations following disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to Bloomberg, the White House wants to include a global food aid request as a means of relief to the already discussed military package for Ukraine.
Since February, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started, prices of staple foods such as wheat, corn, and sunflower oil have risen so high as a result of the scarcity that has occurred.
With the war having no end in sight, the Biden administration sees it as very important to intervene in stabilizing the global supply of this food with aid of as much as $5 billion.
Senator Lindsay Graham, whose reply to a question asked about the potential food aid on Monday during a plenary session in Congress said, “I don’t know if it’d be that much, but we want money for food aid, yes.”
“The world food programme is under siege, so we need to do something.” He added further.
Some analysts fear that this rising food crisis has the potential to drive another uprising, following the fact that it was this upsurge in food prices that led to the 2010-2012 Arab Spring uprisings that toppled long-ruling governments in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.
Oxfam and other aid agencies said that as many as 11 million people in West Africa could be facing hunger in the next three months.
