A renowned consumer goods manufacturer, Unilever Nigeria Plc has disclosed plans to reposition its products and expand its business for sustainability.

Unilever Nigeria Plc produces and markets consumables that include foods, household, beauty, cleansing amongst other goods, Investors King reports.

In a corporate notice signed by its Secretary, Abidemi Ademola sent to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the company stated that its home care and skin cleansing markets will cease to exist while a rebranding takes place for increment in profit.

According to the company, the change in its business model became expedient to fast track the organisation’s growth and further satisfy the needs of their customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. 

Ademola explained that the new strategy would involve digital measures to simplify the business process while chances of devaluation will be avoided and reduced in the market upgrade. 

The company had already visualised the extinction of the home care and skin cleansing categories in 2023 for the general growth of the firm and particularly to build a sustainable business.

The statement read in part, “this will involve repurposing the portfolio by exiting the home care and skin cleansing categories to concentrate on higher growth opportunities.

“Strengthening business operations with measures to digitise and simplify processes; and focusing more on business continuity measures that reduce exposure to devaluation and currency liquidity in our business model.”

No fewer than 16 business firms have been penalised by the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for market-related offences between 2020 and 2022.

Investors King gathered that the total sum of N779.5 million was imposed as fine on the erring companies that cut across manufacturing, food, insurance, consumer goods, technology, banking industries amongst others.

The penalty was as a result of non-compliance with some of the rules and requirements of the exchange for the timely filing of results and accounts by the company.

The NGX data shows that in 2022, fourteen companies were fined the sum of N170.6 million. They include: ETI, FBN Holdings Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Presco Plc, Ardova Plc, C&I Leasing Plc, Coronation Insurance Plc, Royal Exchange Plc, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, LASACO Assurance Plc, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc and Omatek Ventures Plc.

While in 2021, seven companies were sanctioned N586 million and in 2020, the sum of N22.9 million was imposed as fine on three business firms.

Breakdown of the trade offenses and fines for the companies indicates that Coronation Insurance was fined N14.9 million, C & I Leasing was fined N11.6 million while a fine of 9.7 million was imposed on Ardova in 2022.

The NGX fined Presco N5.1 million, Honeywell Flour Mills N1.2 million for failure to submit third quarter 2021 result and account before the deadline.

For the erring financial companies, in 2022, ETI was sanctioned N3.2m; in 2021, FBN Holdings was fined N8.1m, Union Bank of Nigeria got N1.2m fine, Fidelity Bank Plc was fined N1.6m while Unity Bank Plc was sanctioned N4.2m.

An Information and Communications Technology firm, Omatek Ventures got a fine of N537.2m in 2022 for refusal to present audited results and accounts for 2015–2018 to the investing public.

LASACO Assurance was penalised N29.2m between 2020 and 2022 for not complying with some post-listing requirements. In 2022, N5.3m was levied for failure to submit its 2021 audited financial statement to the investing public, while in 2021, N15.1m was fined for not presenting the audited 2020 result and accounts.

The company was also sanctioned N8.8m in 2020 for failure to submit audited 2019, first quarter 2020 and second quarter 2020 financial results.

Investors King learnt that the sanctions on the listed companies have discouraged investors from trading in their stock due to the huge fines.

British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company HSBC Holdings plc has acquired Silicon Valley Bank U.K subsidiary for £1 ($1.21).

HSBC disclosed that the acquisition will help strengthen its franchise in the U.K, noting that all depositors’ money with SVBUK is safe and secure and that all operations will continue as normal.

The company said in a statement, “This action has been taken to stabilize Silicon Valley Bank UK, ensuring the continuity of banking services, minimizing disruption to the UK technology sector, and supporting confidence in the financial system.

“The bank and HM treasury can confirm that all depositor’s money with SVB UK is safe and secure as a result of this transaction. SVB UK’s business will continue to be operated normally by SVB UK. All services will continue to operate as normal, and customers should not notice any changes”.

HSBC’s acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank British arm is coming after a host of potential buyers had submitted proposals to purchase the bank since the failure of its U.S. parent company, amid widespread concern over the immediate future of many British technology and life sciences startups.

Bank of London CEO Anthony Watson disclosed that Silicon Valley Bank cannot be allowed to fail, given the vital role it plays in the community. He added, “this is a unique opportunity to ensure the U.K has a more diversified banking sector, whilst allowing continuity of service to SVB’s U.K client base. It would be deeply disappointing for this moment to lead to further consolidation of power among big banks”.

The acquisition of SVB U.K. subsidiary comes after the bank which specialized in lending funds to technology startups, witnessed a financial implosion on Friday last week, making it the largest U.S. bank failure since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, Investors King understands.

Silicon Valley Bank’s financial implosion began late Wednesday when it informed investors with the unpleasant news that it needed to raise $2.25 billion to shore up its balance sheet. This spurred customers to withdraw a staggering $42 billion of deposits by the end of Thursday, leading to the collapse of the bank.

Analysts predict that the slump of Silicon Valley Bank could be far-reaching which would see Startups faced with several challenges such as paying employees’ salaries, venture investors struggling to raise funds, massive cost cuts, etc.