First Securities Discount House Limited has recommended a total dividend payout of N698.7m to its shareholders for the financial year ended December 31, 2011.
According to the company, this amount translates to a dividend of 25 kobo per share.
This, the company said, ,was as a result of good results recorded at the end of the 2011 financial year.
The Managing Director, FSDH Group, Mr. Rilwan Belo-Osagie, stated this at the company’s pre-Annual General Meeting briefing in Lagos on Tuesday.
The company’s financials showed that the group’s total assets closed at N77.1bn, while its shareholders’ funds stood at N19.2bn in 2011, up by 12.3 per cent from N17.1bn recorded a year earlier.
Its profit after tax, however, closed lower at N2.75bn, down from N3.1bn recorded in 2010, while its earnings per share dropped to 94 kobo, 15 kobo less than N1.09 it earned in2010.
Its subsidiaries, FSDHAsset Management Limited posted a profit after tax of N80m, Pensions Alliance Limited posted a profit of N241m, while FSDH Securities closed the year with a profit of N22.9m.
Belo-Osagie said that trading in the fixed income securities represented a large proportion of the company’s activities and the effect of the high interest rates was reflected in the 15 per cent reduction in the firm’s profit before tax when compared with the 2010 financial year.
According to him, the group was able to record the result despite the challenging economic climate and the tight monetary policy regime of the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as high interest rates which had a significant impact on the value of fixed income securities.
He noted that the company’s application for a banking licence is in its approval-in-principle stage adding that it hoped to complete the process soon
Belo-Osagie also expressed optimism of a better performance next year, adding that machinery had been put in place towards expanding the company’s operational scope.
He said the company was also seeking to take advantage of opportunities in securities trading, asset management, and investment banking if its merchant banking licence received approval from the CBN.
Source: Punch/Udeme Ekwere
