By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Financial services firm, Old Mutual Plc said on Friday its directors are recommending a final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2014 of 6.25p per share to its investors; making it a total dividend of 8.7p per share up seven percent (7%), the company said in a statement on its official website.
According to Old Mutual, the dividend will be paid (subject to being approved by shareholders at the Company’s 2015 Annual General Meeting) on 29 May 2015.
“Shareholders on the South African, Zimbabwe and Malawi branch registers and the Namibian section of the principal register will be paid the local currency cash equivalents of the Final Dividend under dividend access trust or similar arrangements established in each country,” the company said.
In the same vein, the financial services firm said shareholders who hold their shares through Euroclear Sweden AB, the Swedish nominee, will be paid the cash equivalent of the Final Dividend in Swedish Kronor. “Local currency cash equivalents of the Final Dividend for all five territories will be determined by the Company using exchange rates prevailing at the close of business on 9 April 2015 and will be announced by the Company on 10 April 2015,” Old Mutual added.
A review of the 2014 result of the company shows that adjusted operating pre-tax profit climbed up 16 percent to £1.6 billion a good underlying profit growth.
Net client cash flow came in at 4.9 billion pounds, with funds under management rising six (6) percent to 319 billion pounds.
Old Mutual which has a majority stake in South African bank Nedbank, went on a hiring spree last year but is in no rush to do more, a Reuters report said.
In the same vein, the company bought UK financial adviser Intrinsic and money manager Quilter Cheviot, enabling it to target wealthy clients ahead of UK pension reforms to take effect from April.
Also, Nedbank purchased a 20 percent stake in pan-African lender, Ecobank Transnational Incorporate (ETI), while Old Mutual affirmed it will buy a majority stake in Kenyan insurance firm UAP Holdings; saying the joint life business will be number four (4) in market share.
“I am delighted with the way the Group has performed in 2014. We are executing our strategy in a sustainable and profitable way. We have taken significant steps in building an African financial services champion, “Julian Roberts CEO of the group said.
Similarly, Roberts was quoted by Reuters as saying that the focus in 2015 was on the group’s existing businesses. “We’ve spent the money and now we need to get the value out of what we’ve done,” Roberts added.
Old Mutual also sold European businesses last year and brought its U.S. fund management arm OM Asset Management to market, though still owns the majority of it.
The report said Old Mutual’s shares, which have outperformed broader European insurance stocks this year, climbed 1.3 percent to a record high of 226 pence at 08:35 GMT. However, as at 14:02 GMT, share price of the company was up 1.50 pounds to 224.70 pounds on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The CEO at the Old Mutual group said the company’s growth was likely to come from Britain, which accounted for 20 percent of its performance before the purchase of Quilter Cheviot, and Africa outside South Africa, which made up 5 percent.
The Reuters report further affirmed that Old Mutual has only spent part of a 5 billion rand ($435.18 million) investment programme for expansion in sub-Saharan Africa. Its Kenyan purchase follows similar purchases in Ghana and Nigeria.
“We are not as big in Nigeria as we would like to be,” Roberts said, though he also said: “We are not in any particular rush,” Roberts noted.
