By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
New York (INVESTADVOCATE)-Courteville Business Solutions Plc on Tuesday proposed a 4 kobo per share interim dividend to investors of the company.
The business solutions firm quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) says closure date for those to benefit from the interim dividend is August 10, while payment date has been scheduled for August 31, 2015.
“We are giving an interim dividend to compensate our shareholders, for not receiving dividend last year. Courteville since listing on the NSE in 2009 has consistently paid dividend to its shareholders. What happened last year was a technical accounting glitch that sprung up in our filing at the NSE,” Adebola Akindele, CEO of Courteville told InvestAdvocate in a telephone chat from Lagos Nigeria.
In a reaction to InvestAdvocate’s question if the company will pay a higher dividend at the end of the financial year since it has already proposed a 4 kobo per share dividend, Akindele disclosed Courteville is projecting to pay its shareholders a higher dividend; but declined to name the amount.
“We are projecting to offer investors of the company a higher dividend at the end of the financial year; but I will not mention the amount for reasons,” he said.
A review of the half-year (H1) unaudited report ended June 30, 2015 of the AutoReg franchise company shows that profit after tax (PAT) declined marginally by two (2) percent from N215.68 million to N210.53 million in the H1 period of 2015.
Similarly, profit before tax (PBT) dipped the same margin of two (2) percent to N250.63 million from N256.76 million in the H1 of 2014.
Revenue increased slightly from N806.69 million to N822.17 million; showing a marginal growth of two (2) percent in the review period.
The firm successfully completed the bolt-on acquisition of Priority Loss Adjusters Limited (PLA), a market leader in motor vehicle administration and testing in Jamaica earlier this year.
Courteville further disclosed it will also commence operations in Zimbabwe in August 2015 through the introduction of is Insurance Policies Database solution. Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s fastest growing insurance markets and this would serve as the company’s pilot scheme to expand to the South African Development Community (SADC) and East Africa.
