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Heirs Holdings, the pan-African proprietary investment company with interests in key economic sectors, has demonstrated its transformational ability over ailing businesses as one of its major investments, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), presented its achievements of 2013 to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recently. Key accomplishments for Transcorp in 2013 include the acquisition of the 1000 Megawatts Ughelli Power Plant in November, after paying a bid price of $300m. Earlier in 2013, Heirs Holdings committed $2.5b to power investments throughout Africa under the Power Africa initiative; the Ughelli purchase is the first major transaction under the programme.

tony-elumelu (1) — Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings

Transcorp’s strategy of seeking synergistic investments across the value chain in Nigeria, with the power purchase complementing existing investments in oil and gas, has been welcomed by investors, who are beginning to appreciate the strong strategic direction Heirs Holdings brings to the conglomerate. Heirs Holdings Chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, CON, who is also the Chairman of Transcorp, said, “Transcorp represents the new Nigeria—dynamic, globally competitive, transparent and founded on good governance. We promised our investors that they would reap the rewards of their patience, and now we have built a company that is not only sharing the tangible fruits of our labour, it is also a vehicle for all Nigerians to gain access to the opportunities that our country offers.” Transcorp’s presentation showed the company’s investments benefiting key sectors across the Nigerian economy. In the agribusiness space, the company is making new investments in food processing subsidiary Teragro, following its recent attainment of global certifications in international safety standards for its juice concentrate products. In the hospitality sector, Transcorp has commenced the refurbishment and expansion of the award-winning Transorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. In oil and gas, the company expects to see production start on oil block OPL 281 next year. Elumelu further stated: “Transcorp is one of the few ways through which institutional investors can obtain diversified access to Nigeria’s key economic sectors, from power and hospitality to oil and gas and agriculture. Our long term, sustainable investment philosophy reflects Heirs Holdings’ ability to create value, just as we did with the United Bank for Africa, which started as a national bank and is now one a pan-African institution.” Speaking at the Exchange, Transcorp’s CEO, Obinna Ufudo, said, “We are delighted to be able to come to the Exchange having delivered on our promises. We believe the Transcorp transformation is only a the beginning and we look forward to recording further success for our shareholders, stakeholders and staff. We also pay tribute to the critical role leading shareholder Heirs Holdings has played in catalyzing change.” Transcorp’s performance has been transformed from a loss of N8.88 billion loss in 2007, to a profit after tax (PAT) of N1.257 billion in 2011. This was improved in 2012 with a PAT of N2.527 billion, and by the end of September 2013, Transcorp recorded a profit before tax of N5.1 billion for the first three quarters of the year.