Dangote Loses $7.8 billion as Naira, stocks plunge

According to a report by Forbes , Dangote, Tony Elumelu and Jim Ovia lost a lot of money as a
result of the devaluation of Naira. The Forbes report by Mfonobong Nsehe below...
A few weeks ago, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, announced a nearly 10% devaluation of the Naira, Nigeria’s
currency, after admitting that a plunge in world oil prices and dwindling dollar reserves were
making it difficult to defend the value of the currency. The Naira is now trading at N187 to $1, compared to N165 in November. In dollar terms, the devaluation has knocked more than $40 billion off the value of Nigeria’s economy.
Dangote is the biggest loser among Nigeria’s richest people as the Naira’s slump, coupled with falling stock prices, has erased more than
$7.8b of his fortune since Feb, when Forbes locked in the values for its annual ranking of the
World’s Billionaires.
Dangote was worth $25 billion at the time; as of market close on Tuesday, he’s worth $17.2 billion. More than half of the drop in his fortune has happened since early November. As of Nov. 7, Dangote was worth $21.6 billion, $4.4 billion
more than now.
Here’s why: The last few weeks have been a bit of a disaster for many companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Several blue-chip
stocks such as Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank,Transcorp and United Bank of Africa among several others have hit one-year-lows as a result of the fall in oil prices, a general uncertainty regarding the 2015 general elections, Central
Bank regulatory headwinds, and weak earnings from large cap companies. These have all
contributed toward putting naira-denominated assets including equities at risk. After Dangote, the second biggest loser among
Nigeria’s ultra-rich is Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, an investment company. Heirs Holdings, which is wholly-owned
by Elumelu, is the controlling shareholder in Transcorp, a publicly-listed conglomerate with
interests in power production, hotels and agriculture. Transcorp’s current market capitalization is now $700 million, down from $1.4 billion at the beginning of November. Heirs Holdings has lost an estimated $345 million in
paper value on Transcorp, and its stake in the company as at Monday is now worth roughly $400 million, down from $700 million. Elumelu’s
investments in other listed companies like UBA, Africa Prudential PLC and UBA Capital have shed a little over $27 million in value. Other big losers include Nigerian multi-millionaire banker Jim Ovia, a co-founder of Zenith Bank. The value of his stake in the
financial services provider is $240 million as of late Monday, down from more than $350 million last month. He owns a 9% stake in the bank.

Source: lindaikeji.blogspot.com/2014/12/dangote-loses-78-billion-as-naira.html