Eterna Plc's Major Stakeholders Are Selling Off Equity Amid Declining Revenue

New investors are set to acquire shares from "substantial" shareholders in Eterna Plc, as the existing stakeholders are planning to exit from the company. The sell-off comes amid Q3 revenue decline and forecast revealing Eterna Plc's revenue for Q1 2021 - January to March - will fail to surpass its Q1 2020 earnings.

AllNews learnt that negotiations have already began between the new investors and the existing major shareholders of Eterna Plc. The company held a meeting regarding the share acquisition, as the new investors have requested for due diligence of Eterna Plc exercise.

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Eterna Plc has approved the due diligence conduct to be run by the new investors. While confirming the ongoing negotiation, Eterna Plc stated, "some of our substantial shareholders have formally informed the Board of Eterna Plc (the Company) that they are in negotiations to sell equity holdings in the Company to a ‘New Investor’.

"As part of the process of the prospective sale, the proposed New Investor intends to undertake due diligence exercise on the Company. The Board has reviewed the request for due diligence and approved same at its meeting held today (21st December 2020).

"We notify the Exchange in fulfilment of our obligation to report such matters and will continue to do so in line with the guidelines. However, as a shareholder driven transaction, the Company is yet to have full details of the transaction," a statement seen by AllNews disclosed.

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Sell-off Amid Eterna's Declining Revenue

Eterna Plc generated NGN15.4 billion revenue in Q3 this year, while in the corresponding period of 2019 third quarter, Eterna reported NGN55.4 billion as revenue for the period.

While the company's revenue is expected to rebound in Q1 2021 following a poor financial outing in Q1 2020, AllNews findings showed that the projected turnover by Eterna, for next year Q1, will fail to surpass that of Q1 2019.

The company had generated NGN17.54 billion between January to March (Q3) 2020, and Eterna expects this amount to rise in Q1 2021, forecasting NGN21.05 billion as revenue, but the projected amount is way below the NGN60.47 billion Eterna generated in Q1 2019.