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| Business |
| Nico gives nod to K62.5 m dividend |
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by
Ephraim Munthali, 08 September 2004
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18:35:38
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Nico Holdings Limited has approved an interim dividend of K62.5 million or six tambala per share for the half-year ending June 2004.
The six tambala dividend is higher than the 4.8 tambala paid for the same period last year, says the group’s financial statement released Wednesday.
At K232 million, the company’s profit before tax was 16 percent higher than the K200 million earned in the same period last year.
After tax profit was up five percent to K174 million from K166 million during the corresponding period last year.
“The general insurance business in Malawi continued to suffer from delayed payment of premiums particularly from some of our major clients,” Nico said.
The company said late payments forced the group to make provisions against bad and doubtful debts.
It said although Nico Life, the group’s subsidiary, recorded “significant” increases in pensions and individual life premiums, the new deals were yet to make up for businesse lost to major company closures in 2002 and the years before.
But the group said gross premium income shot 22 percent over 2003 and the underwriting result improved from a K19 million loss in 2003 to K1.4 million for the reviewed period.
“This was achieved because of effective cost control and strict risk selection strategy which in turn substantially improved the quality of the portfolio and consequently loss ratio,” the group said.
Nico is currently considering opportunities to further increase market share and achieve high volumes as a growth strategy for the rest of the year.
Regionally, the group’s expansion strategy is still on course despite “certain procedural aspects” which are delaying progress, said the statement.
Last December, the group’s managing director Felix Mlusu announced that the firm would, during the first half of this year, conclude deals to buy insurance companies in Uganda and Tanzania as part of its cross border expansion drive.
But there have been no news in this respect from the Malawi Stock Exchange listed insurance giant.
The company already owns a general insurance company in Zambia which also plans to venture into life insurance.
Nico Holdings has five subsidiaries—Nico Life Insurance, Nico General Insurance, Nico Insurance (Zambia) Limited, Nico Technologies and NBS Bank. |
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