Why Maersk Can’t Talk About Planned $600m Investment In Nigeria

”We believe in Nigeria, and we will invest $600 million in existing facilities and make the ports accommodating for bigger ships”, Robert Uggla, the Chairman of Danish shipping and logistics company, A.P Moller-Maersk told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, April 28, 2024.

The Chairman of the Danish giant made the pledge on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development.

The assurance of a $600m investemnt to expand existing port infrastructure to accommodate more container shipping services in Nigerian ports in the face of intentional – and comprehensive- efforts to revamp the economy made headlines.

But without all the necessary paper work in place to back the planned $600m investment, the Danish giant which is working on reporting its first -quarter 2024 financial results can not make official statements on the deal beacuse of the risk of facing a sanction for spoofing.

Spoofing – or the more popular stock manipulation- is inducing market reaction.

But the company told enquiring news platform, Lloyd’s List “Maersk has been present in Nigeria for 35 years and, as a global provider of logistics services, we remain committed to develop opportunities for growth to people, the port sector and businesses locally,..

“Therefore, it is natural to have an ongoing dialogue with the administration. However, we are not able to comment on any investment talks.”

Lloyd’s List also admitted in its report that “that management are in a regulatory quiet period limiting what they can say publicly about the company’s activities” because of the upcoming financial results.

When it is finalized, the $600m Maersk’s investment is expected to, among other values, complement the Federal Government’s ongoing $1 billion investment in seaport reconstruction across the eastern and western seaports of Nigeria.