By Udeme Ekwere   Monday, 27 Sep 2010

 

 

ARM Properties Plc has paid 16 kobo per share dividend to its shareholders for the financial year ended February 2010.

 

A statement from the company on Friday, said the dividend, which was unanimously approved by the shareholders, represented 52 per cent of the company‘s profit after tax for the period.

 

It quoted the Chairman of the board, Mr. Kwesi Sagoe, as saying that the company was set to deliver better returns to shareholders in the coming years, adding that a lot of projects were on ground to ensure improved performance.

 

He added that the last financial year was characterised by growth, in spite of a challenging operating environment.

 

”With its first completed development, Oluwole Urban Market – Phase 1 (a PPP initiative with the Lagos State Government), and an active pipeline of projects, the company remains on course to becoming the premier real estate investment company in Nigeria.

 

In its results, the company recorded a profit before tax of N729.6m, as against the N283.9m recorded in 2009, while its net asset value rose from N5.54k per share in February 2009 to N6.96k per share in the year under review.

 

Speaking on the future, Sagoe disclosed that management was actively researching the optimal manner and period to list the company on the official list of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, adding that the company had engaged two financial advisers/issuing houses to advise on the listing exercise.

 

He highlighted the company‘s strategic shift to meeting investment goals and objectives and the board‘s approval of the management‘s proposal to increase the size of the company‘s land bank by acquiring viable land sites over the next few years.

 

The Managing Director of the company, Ms. Yinka Ogunsulire, said that the company was well positioned to take advantage of the expected upturn in the economy.

 

She said, ”While many of the difficulties in the current operating environment will remain, and may intensify in the coming year, the absorption rate of the company‘s projects will continue to be affected, but the business case and fundamentals for our products remains strong.”

 

The statement noted that ARM Properties Plc was incorporated in Nigeria in 2006, with the primary objective of making focused investments in the Nigerian real estate sector.

 

It noted that the company was set to take advantage of the improving operating environment and capitalise on emerging opportunities in the fast growing Nigerian real estate market.

Source: The Punch