“Courteville Investment Plc was incorporated in 2005 as a Limited Liability Company. At this time, the company was set up as a business and financial advisory institution.
The Company migrated towards the provision of business solutions based on the opportunities that exist in the motor vehicle administration documentation and other government public service processes.
Our mission statement – to become a business solutions development company driven by the passion to touch the life of every citizen of the worldâ€ÂÂ.
(Source: Courteville official website)
Lagos– investadvocate, Thursday February 03 2011 in its usual manner sought to find out more about Courteville Investment Plc, the AutoReg experts and current happenings in the Company.
In this interview with PETER OBIORA, Adebola Akindele, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Courteville at its Head Office in Lagos Nigeria discusses issues relating to the Company’s post listing era on the Floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), other emerging business opportunities in the E-Commerce and Business Solution products/services to make sure the firm touch the lives of Nigerians.
Other issues discussed include its year 2010 financial year end, expansion plans to America and Europe, promise of a higher dividend to investors, future outlook among others. Excerpts:
Post listing era of Courteville Investment Plc
It has been a mixture of experience and feelings for us. For me in particular, it was my first time as a person to be involved at that level with the issues of the Nigerian Stock Exchange business; and it started out very brightly. We had our Private Placement in year 2008 and it was widely successful; in one week, we had over 150 percent (150%) subscription.
Due to the fact that we have promised our stakeholders that we would list on the Floors of the Exchange, it wasn’t the best of times for us to list; but people wanted us to keep to our commitment, we listed at N2.50 Kobo and then over the next three months our shares went up to N3. 14 Kobo; thereafter, the real effect of the global meltdown set in and every investor started running towards profit taking.
As soon as the share certificates were released, everybody rushed to take advantage of it. The shares they bought at N1.53 Kobo, they were able to sell at N3.14 Kobo, so the price started coming down; but they were sustained for awhile for the first one year; it was still ahead of the Private Placement price. The same year, not quite long after we listed on the Stock Exchange, we paid our dividend to investors of the company.
We had promised to pay our shareholders 0.3 Kobo, but we paid 0.4 Kobo. We said we were going to pay dividend for the first three years; a dividend of between 0.3 to 0.7 Kobo dividend. We paid 0.4 Kobo in year 2008 and year 2009 respectively.
In year 2010, we should be able to pay what we have paid before. It will be better than whatever we have paid to shareholders of the Company in terms of dividend payout. This would immediately qualify us as one of the very few companies that are doing well at the Nation’s Stock Exchange.
We have been rated by two of the foremost recognised rating agencies in Nigeria; Pharez Rating and Augusto & Co.
Again, we have qualified for investment by Companies handling pension funds in Nigeria. Pension Funds Managers can invest in Companies that has paid dividends to its shareholders consistently for about three years.
In terms of the performance of the Company, we have been steady and stable. It has not grown as high as we expect; but it has not been below any expectation of what we find in the Market these days; but we have been profitable, that’s why we are paying dividend.
Our business has grown substantially; but that has also expanded cost; because on our E- Commerce business we have decided to go into in order to take care of the private sector of the economy; has taken off; but we are on the part of the curve were it is more of expenses and investment; before the returns start coming in, these has impacted in its own way in our results.
When we listed in April year 2009, we were in about five States of the Federation in Autoreg; but now, we are in 15 States in terms of the business; having full coverage of the whole nation with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in terms of motor vehicle and Drivers license documentation verification. We are almost about to launch our first sub-continental business outside Nigeria.
The first one should be in the first quarter of this year in the West Coast of Africa. Again, we have been appointed by the Lagos State Signage Agency (LASAA) to help them build their Automated Processing System; this started Tuesday February 01 2011. We are getting a lot of businesses coming to us.
In essence, Courteville has evolved from the small Company it was that people saw with a lot of value in it; into a huge entity. We are in almost our sixteenth State in Nigeria and still growing, our data base has grown so much that we know in Sub-Saharan Africa; we have the largest data base of any type.
We are now approaching 10 million files, a file contains between 10 and 15 records. So, we are poised to becoming bigger the moment our E-Commerce platform takes off fully. If you check out our shopping site, we have just concluded, www.egoleshopping.com and it is going to be the most robust online shopping site in Nigeria and West Africa. We have just concluded the accreditation of the payment gateway on Interswitch, ValueCard and E-Transact. This means we have the capabilities of accepting and processing payments on these platforms. We have Merchants of almost 50 and it has not yet been commercially launched.
Therefore, like I affirmed earlier, we are poised to give Nigerians the best of attending to their daily needs.
EDITOR’s PICK:
“Courteville listed shares worth N7.5 billion on the Stock Exchange. It listed by introduction N2.96 billion Ordinary Shares of 50 Kobo each at N2.50 Kobo per share.
It came on the heels of a successful Private Placement (PP), which saw the company raise about N1.3 billion in year 2008â€ÂÂ.
On your 2010 Financial Results
We have been up to date, towards the end of 2009, there was a downturn; even in our own results. We were investing at this period and spending a lot of money; especially in the E-Commerce part of our business. Our Asset acquisition was getting higher; our business is still with the Government; but it has grown; but not in terms of the volume we started with. Courteville has taken about five States from the Northern part of Nigeria, the expenses of running these businesses has gone up. In order to position ourselves for the next two years, we have to invest. In year 2009, our results slowed down and that continued into the half year period of year 2010.
We picked up in the last two quarters of 2010 and we are hoping that the upward turn from the last quarter of 2010 will be sustained in the rest of 2011.
Again, we hope to start reaping the benefits of our efforts in the second quarter of 2011; when the E-Commerce platform would have been launched; already, we have a major retail shopping outlet.
In Anambra State, we are employing our solutions called the Property Revenue Manager to help them enumerate their properties and then collect waste bins. Our AutoReg Inspector is what is been used by FRSC allover Nigeria to confirm the authenticity of vehicle and Driver license in Nigeria.
However, Profit taking has always been an issue for people and the Company’s Stock; maybe we haven’t managed it well in terms of releasing information to people. We have complied with every single rule set by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). One of the issues that we have realised is the fact that our name Courteville Investment confuses people with the thinking that we are actually with the Stockbroking business. Also, people know us more for AutoReg than Courteville.
AutoReg is a brand that has dominated the Courteville Group. AutoReg is essentially for anything motor vehicle documentation. We have other businesses that are not AutoReg.
Coming back to our Results, we will do our Annual General Meeting (AGM) before the middle of the year, and before then, our year 2010 results will be released. At least we are paying; shareholders are getting returns.
EDITOR’s PICK:
As at the time of filling in this Report, the Audited Financial Statement year 2010 was not made available to Investadvocate.
Your AutoReg expansion in Nigeria
Like I affirmed earlier, we are now entering the 16th State, it has been slow running; you will realise that it has been politics in most of the States in the past one year. This has made it more difficult for us in terms of AutoReg. What we are already handling has taken us beyond 65% of the Market share and beyond 50% for the whole of West Africa. We might not have achieved the 25 States that we planned in terms of number; but in terms of volume, we have done close to that.
FACTS CHECK:
The company is presently the biggest player in AutoReg Vehicle Licensing Service in Nigeria with presence in about sixteen (16) States.
On Competition
If there was competition, you will know about that when it comes to motor vehicle documentation. We are a business solution development company, and there are other companies that do the kind of things that we do; but they are not as popular.
We have Companies (name withheld) handling the passport documentation only in Nigeria and those handling the education management system. These are the companies we can compare ourselves with.
Courteville is the foremost business development Company in the whole of West Africa; our flagship product AutoReg still remains the most popular brand; even beyond our sector and we have won awards in terms of marketing; from Nigerian Institute of Marketing (NIM) and others. We are ISO certified. We are one of the less than 10% of the total certified companies in Nigeria. We are the only one in our sector and part of the 10% that has been ISO certified. Our processes and products have all been certified as international standard.
Plans to expand to America and Europe
We have submitted our registration of patient in those places, it is being processed and entry into such business environment will require you follow due process. Registrations of the patient and trade marks are taking time; but we have submitted our papers like I affirmed earlier. Governments are less involved in the administration of these processes in the areas mentioned.
Courteville Collaboration with Industrial and General Insurance Plc (IGI)
The collaboration is what has given us faster breakthrough in a lot of African countries. We hope to ride on their strength with the Governments of those Countries to capture their Market.
EDITOR’s PICK:
“Adebola Akindele, CEO of Courteville at ist last AGM held July 2010 confirmed that the company is in collaboration with Industrial and General Insurance Plc (IGI), in order to help facilitate other approvals in eight African countries where it is currently operating by using IGI’s contactsâ€ÂÂ.
Promise to investors in year 2010 Financial Year End
We have promised that investors of the Company will not go away empty handed. And they would be happy to be one of the very few investors in the Nigerian Stock Exchange that would say my company has not disappointed us for the third consecutive year.
EDITOR’s PICK:
“Courteville paid investors of the Company 0.4 Kobo dividend for years 2009 and 2008 respectively and has promised to pay a higher dividend in year 2010 endâ€ÂÂ.
Future outlook of Courteville
We are Government enablers and would continue to be so. In Courteville, we would committee ourselves to enabling Government and the citizenry to be able to get things done easier and the way it should be done in a cheaper, faster and more convenient and authentic manner. When Nigeria celebrated 50 years, we joined in the celebration; because we were very proud in helping this economy; whatever the shortcomings. Again, we are very proud to have been able to scale through the usual challenges in Nigeria to deliver our solutions that have world class standards.
We commemorated the Nation’s 50th anniversary by unveiling an artwork called “Courteville a Journey of a Thousand Milesâ€ÂÂ. Nigeria started as a fragmented entity about 50 years ago and later came together. With all the efforts of different people to disintegrate it, Nigeria still remains one indivisible entity; it is the journey of a thousand mile. We in Courteville have embarked on a journey of a thousand mile with our stakeholders to make sure that wherever they are, we are touching their lives.
End
