UBA CAPITAL’S SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE N1.5BN DIVIDEND

Shareholders of UBA Capital Plc on Tuesday approved the 25 kobo per ordinary share dividend proposed by the directors for the 2013 financial year. This amounted to a total dividend of N1.5bn.

The shareholders, who gave the approval at the company’s first Annual General Meeting in Lagos, also reelected the directors, and the Chairman, Mr. Chika Mordi.

The reelected directors are Mr. Emmanuel Nnorom, Mr. Adim Jibunoh, Ambassador J. Shinkaiye, and Mr. Yoro Diallo.

The board had recommended the dividend after the company recorded improvements in its profit in 2013.

For instance, the group’s gross earnings rose by 241 per cent to N4.573bn in 2013 from N1.342bn in 2012; profit before tax jumped by 212 per cent to N2.634bn from N844m; while profit after tax climbed by 106 per cent to N1.763bn from N1.418bn.

The Group Chief Executive Officer, UBA Capital, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, who described the performance as impressive, told the shareholders that the company expected a better performance this year.

She said, “2013 was a year of laying a solid foundation for the legacy we are building as Africa’s leading investment banking group, which we commenced successfully by establishing ourselves as a key player in Nigeria.”

She explained that initiatives implemented by the company, which enabled it to participate in major transactions such as the acquisition of the Ughelli Power plant by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, boosted its profits.

Also, the Chairman, Mordi, told the shareholders that having overcome several challenges in the macro-economic environment to post a positive annual result, he was confident of a better performance in 2014.

“I have no doubt that the strategies we have adopted and structures that the board has put in place are enough to sustain and surpass our performance,” he said.

While shareholders at the event commended the bank for its performance and the dividend payment, they called on the board and management to work towards cutting operating costs and ensure that it operated strictly within the confines of the law.

According to them, that is the only way that the good start it has made can be sustained.

Questions were asked about the rise in ‘other operating expenses’ –  from N299.4m in 2012 to N1.246bn in 2013; as well as an increase in income tax expense. And a shareholder, who observed that while the company had paid a dividend of 25 kobo, its earnings per share was 44 kobo, called for an improvement next year.

In response, Mordi and Sanni explained that expenses went up as a result of the expansion of operations.

“In the course of the year, our business plan expanded to cover trustee and asset management. So, there was a natural increase in costs, but there was also superlative increase in revenue,” Sanni said.

She explained that measures put in place to reduce costs were already yielding results as costs declined in the first quarter of 2014.

“We are always conscious of costs and we will always make sure that costs are optimised,” she said