By Boluwatife Oshadiya | June 10, 2026
Key Points
- Zichis Agro Allied Industries has rallied 1,604% year-to-date, supported by triple-digit revenue and profit growth, but analysts say much of that growth is already priced into the stock
- Fortis Global Insurance remains loss-making with accumulated losses near N18.9 billion even after a 370% year-to-date share-price gain
- RT Briscoe and Redstar Express show the strongest operating fundamentals among the five stocks, while SCOA Nigeria’s profit recovery has come alongside a much smaller revenue base than four years ago
Main Story
Nigeria’s benchmark Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index has risen 56.4% in 2026, but a small cluster of low-capitalisation stocks has dramatically outpaced the broader market. Zichis Agro Allied Industries, Fortis Global Insurance, SCOA Nigeria, RT Briscoe and Redstar Express have gained between 252% and 1,604% since January, despite a combined market value of only about ₦115.7 billion.
Exchange filings and company accounts reviewed by BizWatch Nigeria show sharply different underlying businesses behind those price moves.
Zichis Agro Allied Industries: Zichis reported 2025 revenue of ₦675.6 million, up 134% year-on-year, while profit rose 478% to ₦328.1 million. The company’s first-quarter 2026 filing showed ₦420 million in revenue and ₦228.9 million in profit, an 819% increase from the same period a year earlier, with minimal debt on the balance sheet. Even so, the share price has multiplied more than sixteen-fold this year, leaving the stock trading at valuation levels above much larger and more established Nigerian industrial companies. The stock has already begun to cool, falling 6.52% month-on-month.
Fortis Global Insurance: Fortis posted a net loss of ₦1.69 billion for the latest reported full year, negative earnings per share of -₦0.13, and a first-quarter 2026 loss of ₦576.5 million, worse than a year earlier. Accumulated losses stood at ₦18.87 billion, borrowings rose 49% to ₦5.74 billion, and cash declined 31% year-on-year. Trading volumes suggest heavy retail participation: about 1.25 billion shares changed hands in three months for only ₦1.53 billion in value traded. After peaking around March, the stock’s market value has retreated by roughly ₦775 million in June, though it remains up about 370% year-to-date.
SCOA Nigeria: SCOA has genuinely recovered from a ₦591.4 million loss in 2022 to ₦553.7 million in net income in 2025. However, revenue has fallen sharply over the same period and remains around ₦8.36 billion, roughly half the level recorded four years ago. The market has nonetheless bid the stock aggressively higher, with momentum indicators at overbought levels. Investors are now focused on whether the next earnings release on July 24 can show revenue growth rather than just cost-driven profit improvement.
RT Briscoe: RT Briscoe presents the strongest growth profile among the group. Revenue has expanded roughly 240% in four years to ₦40.4 billion in 2025, and first-quarter 2026 numbers point toward a possible ₦60 billion full-year run rate. The stock trades at about 4.9x earnings, far below the other names in the rally. The main concern is the balance sheet: liabilities exceed assets, helping explain why no dividend has been paid since 2021 despite two profitable years. Unlike the others, its momentum indicators sit near neutral levels, suggesting the share price is not being driven solely by speculative buying.
Redstar Express: Redstar has been profitable every year from 2021 through 2025, has grown revenue consistently, and has paid dividends for four consecutive years. It also carries positive equity of about ₦5.63 billion and no significant debt. The first-quarter 2026 report, however, showed profit down 40% year-on-year to ₦175.8 million on essentially flat revenue, and no 2025 dividend has yet been declared. The stock has begun correcting after a strong May rally, though technical indicators point to an orderly pullback rather than a collapse.
The Issues
The rally highlights three structural features of the Nigerian equity market. First, several of the stocks have relatively small free floats, meaning modest buying pressure can move prices disproportionately. Second, persistent inflation and negative real returns on many savings products have pushed more retail investors toward equities in search of faster gains. Third, momentum strategies have dominated trading in parts of the market, allowing prices to detach from near-term earnings power for extended periods.
That disconnect matters because valuation eventually depends on cash generation, not just price appreciation. In Zichis and SCOA, profits improved, but prices rose much faster than earnings. In Fortis, the core business remains loss-making despite the share-price surge. RT Briscoe and Redstar show more durable operating businesses, yet investors are already paying for continued execution, leaving less room for disappointment in upcoming results.
What’s Being Said
“Zichis is not a pure pump-and-dump story because the earnings acceleration is real, but the valuation now assumes several more years of exceptional growth.”
— Lagos-based equities analyst who reviewed the company’s 2025 and Q1 2026 filings
“Fortis remains the outlier: the business is still reporting losses, leverage is rising, and the trading pattern looks far more like retail momentum than institutional accumulation.”
— Insurance-sector research analyst
“RT Briscoe is the only name in the group where the price move can be reasonably linked to a low starting valuation and a visible revenue recovery, though the balance sheet still needs work.”
— Market strategist at a Lagos brokerage firm
What’s Next
- Investors are watching SCOA’s next earnings release on July 24 for evidence that revenue is expanding, not merely costs falling
- RT Briscoe’s July 30 results will be scrutinised for confirmation that first-quarter momentum is translating into sustained growth
- Fortis’s upcoming earnings disclosures will be critical for assessing whether losses are narrowing or leverage is continuing to increase
- Redstar’s next set of results and any dividend declaration will determine whether the first-quarter slowdown was temporary or the start of a weaker earnings cycle
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line: The easy gains in this cluster appear to be behind the market. Four of the five stocks are already negative month-on-month, and the fundamental picture no longer supports treating them as a single “hot money” trade. Fortis lacks a clear earnings case, SCOA and Zichis have prices that have run ahead of current fundamentals, while RT Briscoe and Redstar look like the most credible underlying businesses but are now being priced for continued execution. For investors still holding, the question is less whether profits exist and more how much future growth has already been paid for upfront.
