Med-View Airline to list on Nigerian Stock Exchange

One of Nigeria’s domestic carriers, Med-View Airline, will on Tuesday, January 31, lists its shares valued at N14.63 billion by way of introduction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Med-View Airline will be listing 9.75 billion units of its shares at N1.50 per share, sources close to this development told BusinessDay on Wednesday.

Sources have also confirmed to BusinessDay that Jaiz Bank plc, Nigeria first non-interest bank, will also be listing its shares on the NSE in the first-quarter of 2017.
Confirming these developments Wednesday, a source at the NSE simply said, “They have our approvals. Both Med-View and Jaiz Bank will be listing their shares on Nigerian Stock Exchange by introduction in this first quarter.”
Med-View plans to eventually do a public offer sometime in the future and to use the proceeds from its share sales to expand its operations, get more aircraft, and increase its routes, Obuke Oyibotha, media consultant to Med-View told BusinessDay on phone.
“We are in the process and very soon we are going to ring the bell in the stock exchange and we are going to be listed. We visited the stock exchange last year and in the next few weeks, we are going to be listed. We have been in the process for more than one year and we have gone through all the process. Of recent among the airlines flying, we are the only one going public,” he said.
Med-View Airline share listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange comes barely 10 years after its existence as a carrier.
“If the money comes, we will expand our operations and we will increase our routes and get more aircraft. We have enough destinations and we have more destinations that we need to fly to,” Oyibotha said.
With this development, Med-View moves to become the third airline to list its shares on the NSE after defunct ADC Airlines and Albarka Airlines.
Many airlines in the Nigerian space have been struggling with liquidity challenges making most of their expansion plans a mere dream.
Med-View was founded in 2007 as a charter airline, mainly operating Haji flights, and has offered domestic passenger services since November 2012. It has since expanded into regional and long haul scheduled passenger routes.
Med-View Airline operates to eight domestic and three international scheduled destinations in four countries across Nigeria, West Africa, Europe and the Middle East (as of 22 February 2015).
Domestic airlines currently existing in Nigeria have reduced to seven. They include Arik Air, Med-View, First Nation, Dana Air, Azman, Overland and Air Peace.
Industry watchers say the travails of domestic airlines include funding, the impact of economic downturn, widening gap between the naira and dollar exchange rate, unfriendly regulations, high cost of aviation fuel, as well as that of infrastructure.

These problems have been there for long and are the causes of several domestic airlines closing shop. Some of the airlines that have closed shop include; Tat Nigeria, Max Air, Discovery, Kabo Air, Harka Air, Doniar Aviation, Association Aviation, Allied Air and recently, FirstNation.
Ali Magaji, Aviation finance consultant said there are significant challenges for the industry as a whole to find finance for the new deliveries.
“Today, most of the airlines owe Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) substantial amount of money beyond the capacities of their balance sheets, which reveals that it is getting increasingly difficult for investors to source financing options,” Magaji said.
He explained that there is a very high interest rate regime from local commercial banks, poor credit rating to access foreign funding, over-regulated financial system impeding simple and genuine foreign currency transactions.

(culled from www.businessdayonline.com)