The shareholders of FBN Holdings Plc have approved for the Board of Directors to pay a final dividend of 26kobo per share. The approval was given at the 7th annual general meeting (AGM) of the holding company (HoldCo) which held on Friday, May 3, 2019, in Lagos.
The dividends will be paid electronically on Monday, May 6 to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at close of business on April 23.
At the meeting, the shareholders received and adopted the audited accounts for the financial year ended December 31, 2018, together with the reports of the directors, auditors, board appraisers and audit committee thereon.
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The financial highlights of FBN Holdings Plc for the review year-end show gross earnings of N583.5billion, down by 20percent from N595.4billion in 2017. Profit before tax (PBT) was N65.3billion in 2018, up by 19.7percent from N54.5billion in 2017.
Customer deposit grew by 10.9percent from 2017 low of N3.143trillion in 2017 to N3.486trillion in 2018. Earnings per share went up by 43.5percent in 2018 to N1.65 from N1.15 in 2017. Return on average equity increased to 9.9percent in 2018 from 7.3percent in 2017.
“In 2018, the increased group-wide collaboration resulted in a remarkable achievement of N20billion in synergy revenues, representing three-year revenue synergy targets for the Group between 2017 and 2019,” said Oba Otudeko, chairman, FBN Holdings Plc.
He said the execution of key synergy initiatives by employees to drive collaboration and cross-sell across all operating companies, contributed significantly to the achievement of this impressive result for the Group.
“In furtherance of our cost synergy objective, we recently secured the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria to roll out our Group Shared Services model to drive efficiency and ultimately improve the cost-to-income ratio of the Group,” Otudeko added.
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Looking into the future, he noted that the Group is resolute about delivering on its strategic objectives for the year, “as the Board and Management work together to ensure that we create shareholder value and build strong foundations for the future. We are not resting on our laurels, our renewed approach to synergy and innovation will be major drivers to unlocking earnings potentials for our Group.”
U.K. Eke, Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc said: “Over the last 12 months, we have made significant strides in strengthening our hold in the Electronic Banking space through the launch of the Agent Banking programme that has grown to over 15,000 agents, ramped-up our share of the USSD banking revenue.”
The Group Managing Director reiterated FBN Holdings Plc commitment to the shareholders “as well as the larger market that the aspirations of rebuilding the institution have garnered increasing momentum with the strong support of the Boards of our operating companies and our large base of a dedicated workforce.”
