Another milestone event towards enlisting Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) clubs in the securities and exchange market has been scheduled to hold in Lagos today.
At the event scheduled to hold at the Best Western Hotel (formerly Protea Hotel) on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, eight of the clubs nominated at the last Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the League Management Company (LMC) for the pilot scheme would meet with financial, banking and legal advisors that were shortlisted following a recent Expression of Interest (EOI) call made by the LMC.
The clubs are Enyimba International, Kano Pillars, Rangers International and El-Kanemi Warriors. The others are MFM FC of Lagos, Wikki Tourists, Shooting Stars and Gombe United.
Eighteen leading issuing houses were shortlisted to act as advisors to the clubs following their expression of interest to participate in the process that will see a Nigerian football company listed for trading in the capital market.
Some of the issuing houses include Finmal Financial Services Limited, Cowrie Assets Management Limited, Fundvine Capital & Securities, GTI Capital, Afrinvest Securities, Bestworth Assets & Trust Limited and Capital Assets Limited. Also shortlisted were Investment One Financial Services Limited, Lead Securities & Investment Limited, Futureview Securities, ICMG Securities and WSTC Financial Services. The rest are Capital Bancorp PLC, Greenwich Trust Limited, MBC Securities, Africa Prudential Registrars PLC and United Securities Limited.
The appointment of the advisers is pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the LMC and NASD OTC Securities Exchange which has a lead objective of opening the NPFL clubs to the investment from the capital market and also reducing the government total ownership of some of the clubs.
The LMC Chairman, Shehu Dikko, had at various fora remarked that professionalising club management in line with standard business practices can only be achieved when private and corporate investment as well as community ownership is introduced in the ownership structure of the clubs.