Odua investment grows assets by 3.6%, declares N428m dividend

Odu’a Investment Company Limited total assets grew by 3.6 percent from N110.56 billion in 2021 to N114.51 billion in 2022.

Bimbo Ashiru, group chairman of the conglomerate who disclosed this at its 41st Annual General Meeting, said that the company posted a profit before tax of N4.08 billion in 2022, 56.5percent lower than the N9.37 billion in 2021, saying “This was driven largely by lower revaluation gains.” The company also recorded an operating revenue of N3.67 billion for 2022 financial which is a decline of 8.5 percent from N4.01 billion in 2021. A dividend of N428 million was paid to shareholders which are the six South West states.

“Despite the socio-economic challenges we faced as a business, I am happy to report that the Board has recommended a dividend of N428million for your approval. This is higher than the dividend of N418 million paid in 2021, and indicative of our commitment to delivering sustainable returns,” he said. This brings the total dividend paid to shareholders over the last nine years to the sum of N2.56 billion.

Odua company is owned by six South West states of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Lagos.

As part of fulfilling responsibilities of steering the company towards achieving its potential, the group chairman said: “We have stayed committed to the execution of our Five-year Strategy, which we refer to as SRC (Sweat, Revive, and Create) 2025. The central thrusts of the strategy include sustainably improving returns by Sweating existing assets, Reviving moribund businesses within our portfolio or optimising their assets, and Creating new businesses across our priority sectors (Agriculture, Healthcare, Real Estate, Hospitality, Financial Services, Energy, ICT and Transportation and Logistics).”

Ashiru also said that the outlook for 2023 remains positive, adding that “we expect some of the critical
changes in the monetary and fiscal policy environment that will drive activities in real estate and construction, agriculture, and the power sector, amongst others. I believe that the year 2023 will be pivotal for the business. Several transformational initiatives in our operations will be completed or nearing completion, and it will therefore, be a year of consolidating on the significant shift that the Board and Management have worked so diligently to achieve over the last three years.”

Read also: Odua Foundation gears towards welfare of South West people – Ashiru

Adewale Raji, Group managing director of the company, in his address said: “We expect economic activities to improve gradually especially in the half year as we expect the new administration to unbundle the cleavage that will lead to sustainable economic growth. “As a business, we are resolute in our conviction that the business plans we set-out to execute in 2023 will drive the expected growth.”

Raji disclosed that since the company received licence for the BITA Marginal field in June 2022, efforts have been intensified in conjunction with field partner- Pioneer Global Energy Resources- to obtain the required documentation to finalise plan, raise required funding and commence operations.

“Once the field development plan is completed, we see the marginal field coming on stream to achieve ‘first oil’ within 18 months,” he said. He further disclosed that the redevelopment of Premier Hotel, Ibadan that will birth a new five-star hotel is ongoing and that the “target date to open for patronage is first quarter of 2025.”