Seplat Energy Makes NGX History As First 5 Figure Stock; OpenAI Calls Foul Against Anthropic; And The United American Airlines?
- Dipo Owolabi
- Apr 15
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 16
Markets, megadeals, and Big Tech rivalries are all hitting new highs, and new tensions. Nigeria’s equities market just saw a historic first as Seplat Energy breaks the ₦10,000 per share barrier, signaling strong investor momentum. In the AI race, the competition is turning more aggressive, with OpenAI taking aim at Anthropic over revenue claims as both edge toward potential IPOs. Meanwhile, consolidation talk is back on the table in aviation, as United Airlines explores a possible tie-up with American Airlines, a move that could reshape the industry. And in digital advertising, Meta Platforms is poised to dethrone Alphabet’s Google for the top spot globally. From record-breaking stocks to intensifying corporate battles, all this and more in today’s Read And Eat! |
Markets Around The World
Markets as of 14th April 2026.. Cells in RED mean that the value is down, cells in Green mean the value is up.
MAJOR HEADLINES
Seplat Energy Becomes First NGX Stock To Cross N10,000 Per Share
Seplat Energy Plc, on Tuesday, made history as the first listed company on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) to cross the ₦10,000 per share price mark. The stock price of Seplat Energy sustained positive momentum following FTSE Russell reclassification of Nigeria from unclassified to Frontier Market status in its interim review.
As at the close of trading activities on April 14, the stock price of Seplat Energy gained almost 10%, from ₦9,550.00 per share it opened for trading. When Nigeria’s reclassification was announced April 7, the stock price of Seplat moved from ₦9,099.90 per share to ₦9, 550.00 per share April 8, 2026. So far in 2026, the stock price of Seplat Energy had appreciated by almost 80% per share growth in its Year-till-Date (YtD) from ₦5,809.00 per share it closed for trading in 2025.
The company delivered transformational growth in 2025, with group production rising 148% to 131,506 barrels of oil equivalent per day and revenue surging 144% to $2.73 billion, reflecting the first full-year consolidation of offshore assets and strong onshore performance driven by the completion of the Sapele Gas Plant and new well activity. Financial performance strengthened significantly, as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization rose 137% to $1.28 billion, operating profit increased to $675.2 million, and operating cash flow expanded 276% to $1.17 billion. Seplat achieved critical operational milestones, including first gas at the ANOH plant, a 48.6 barrels of oil equivalent per day and revenue boost from the idle well restoration programme, and completion of the EAP Inlet Gas Exchanger, while reducing onshore emissions intensity by 24% and progressing its flaring elimination agenda. AriseNews
OpenAI Accused Anthropic Of Inflating Revenue Numbers;
Pot Calling Kettle Black
OpenAI’s chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, sent a four-page memo to employees on Sunday about the company’s strategic direction, emphasizing the need to lock in users and grow its enterprise business. The memo, which was viewed by The Verge, repeatedly underlines the importance of building a moat around its AI products, to combat how easy it is for users to switch between whichever model is topping the charts on any given day or week.
Dresser, who recently took over much of former COO Brad Lightcap’s duties as he transitions to a new role focused on special projects, also emphasizes the importance of focusing on enterprise clients. It’s part of the company’s recent strategy to avoid focusing on “side quests” and go all in on its biggest revenue drivers. CNBC earlier reported on the memo. Dresser also addressed the intensifying competition between OpenAI and its longtime rival Anthropic, writing that “the market is as competitive as I have ever seen it” and that though Anthropic’s “coding focus gave them an early wedge,” “you do not want to be a single-product company in a platform war.”
The memo also accuses Anthropic of inflating its stated run rate and says it was a “strategic misstep” for the company to not acquire enough compute. Both OpenAI and Anthropic reportedly plan to go public this year. “Their story is built on fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI,” Dresser wrote of Anthropic. OpenAI has long marketed itself as “democratic AI” allowing more access to the people, often implying that Anthropic and its enterprise focus do the opposite. In February, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote, “Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people.” TheVerge
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby pitched the potential for merging with American Airlines in a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in late February, two sources said, raising the prospect of an industry-reshaping deal likely to face significant regulatory hurdles.
A combination of two of the largest U.S. network carriers would cause much regulatory pushback as it would be against antitrust and also that it would lead to higher prices for flight tickets, job losses route overlap because the airlines are struggling as the war in Iran is driving highher the cost of jet fuel. The meeting with Trump took place on February 25 toward the end of a scheduled White House meeting on the future of Dulles airport, said the sources with knowledge of the matter.
The United CEO said at a forum in September that two-thirds of long-haul seats to and from the United States are on foreign carriers, but 60% of passengers are U.S. citizens. Industry officials said the chances of the deal's approval would be slim, citing likely opposition from unions, rival airlines, lawmakers and airports, as well as concerns about route overlap and job losses. Reuters |
Meta Surpassed Google As The World's Largest Ad Business
Meta Platforms is expected to surpass Alphabet's Google to become the world's leading digital-advertising business, a first for the social-media company. Advertising research firm Emarketer projects that Meta Ad Revenue will surpass Google's Ad Revenue by almost $4 billion .
The research firm's estimates account for revenue after deducting traffic and other content acquisition costs, such as the money Google shares with its creators. Meta has demonstrated "incredible patience" in establishing substantial user habits for products like Reels, the microblogging site Threads and the messaging platform WhatsApp before eventually introducing advertisements, according to Max Willens, a principal analyst at the research firm. Worldwide ad growth for Meta is expected to rise from 22.1% in 2025 to 24.1% this year, Emarketer estimates.
Meta recently said the revenue run rate of video-generation tools hit $10 billion in the fourth quarter.Meta's capital spending is expected to reach $135 billion this year. Google's ad business encompasses its dominant search platform, YouTube, the Google Network, which runs ads on third-party websites, and other ad initiatives. While Google has long maintained a tight grip on the highly profitable search business, it faces increasing competition, with rivals like Amazon.com taking some market share. Google's share of the U.S. search ad market is expected to be 48.5% this year, the first time it has fallen below 50% in over a decade. Wall Street Journal
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