The Nation Newspaper

Tag: prudential

  • Africa Prudential envisions better opportunities for registrars, others

    The capital market holds out immense opportunities for growth for innovative and technology-driven capital market operators.

    At a stakeholders’ forum organised in Lagos by Africa Prudential Plc, experts agreed that capital market operators with the requisite foresight, innovation and technology would be better-positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the market.

    Chairman, Africa Prudential Plc, Chief Eniola Fadayomi, said the stakeholders’ forum with the broad theme: “Leveraging Opportunities in an Evolving Capital Market: The Changing Roles of Registrars”, was organised to provide an opportunity for Africa Prudential and all its stakeholders to examine the past, present and future outlook of the capital market with a view to charting a road map for the future of all players in the industry in a genial atmosphere of robust debate.

    According to her, as a company with a very strong passion for transforming Africa through innovative solutions, superior investor relations, and business support services, Africa Prudential is in business to maximise mutual possibilities for all its stakeholders.

    She noted that in order to be at the competitive edge of innovation, a company must be agile and adapt to the changing times.

    “In other words, the company must be mindful of the fact that corporate success has its inherent risks and dangers – complacency. Nothing but change is permanent.  At Africa Prudential, we realise that change and innovation are paramount for a sustainable future for our company and that is why we are all here,” Fadayomi said.

    She added that the stakeholders’ forum would help ignite the spark of ideas, concepts, foresight and innovations that will spur the capital market industry to greater heights.

    She said Arica Prudential has diversified its business focus through an array of revolutionary new products as part of a sustainable vision for growth as a going concern.

  • British Prudential enters Nigeria via Zenith Bank

    British insurer, Prudential, said it had bought a majority stake in Nigeria’s Zenith Life to give it access to the African country’s fast-growing insurance market.

    It said it had also signed a deal with the Nigerian insurer’s parent Zenith Bank Plc to sell life and other insurance products via the bank in Nigeria and Ghana.

    “Today’s announcement is an important milestone for Prudential and our growing portfolio of high-quality life insurance businesses in Africa,” Matt Lilley, chief executive of Prudential Africa.

    Zenith Life, which had gross written premiums worth N3.3 billion ($10.82 million) at the end of 2016, will be rebranded as Zenith-Prudential Life Insurance.

    Prudential did not say what size stake it had bought or how much it had paid. Prudential already has operations in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia in Africa.

  • Shareholders approve Africa Prudential Registrars’ N700m dividends

    Shareholders approve Africa Prudential Registrars’ N700m dividends

    Africa Prudential Registrars (APR) Plc would today distribute N700 million as cash dividends to shareholders following the approval of the dividend recommendation at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the company.

    APR, Nigeria’s first and only share registration company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), would pay a dividend per share of 35 kobo to all shareholders. The payment of the dividend will be made tomorrow to all shareholders on the register of members of the company as at the qualifying date of March 17 this year.

    Addressing shareholders at the meeting, its chairman, Chief  Eniola Fadayomi said APR’s dividend policy is aimed at rewarding shareholders by increasing their wealth and consistency.

    She said though market performance in the first half of the year showed momentary positive runs, the second half was far less impressive, pointing out that in spite of the inclement operating environment, the company recorded significant gains when compared to the previous year.

    Its Managing Director, Mr. Peter Ashade, reassured that the company remains true to its goal of becoming the leading and dominant provider of share registration services in Africa.

    “As a result, our focus for the year will be to continue to profitably grow our businesses while providing our clients and stakeholders with appropriate alternative solutions. We will strive to manage our operating costs by optimising our processes while concurrently improving the level of service delivery to our clients,” Ashade said.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of the company showed steady growths in all key performance indicators. Gross earnings rose from N1.85 billion in 2013 to N2.11 billion in 2014. Profit before tax also rose from N1.21 billion to N1.30 billion. After taxes, net profit stood at N1.22 billion in 2014 as against N914.46 million in 2013. Earnings per share showed corresponding increase from 46 kobo in 2013 to 61 kobo in 2014.

    The balance sheet of the company also showed appreciable improvement. Total assets closed 2014 at N18.91 billion compared with N16.42 billion in 2013. Total liabilities meanwhile rose from N12.09 billion to N14.38 billion. Shareholders’ funds increased marginally from N4.33 billion to N4.53 billion.

    It would be recalled that APR equally paid a dividend per share of 35 Kobo to shareholders for the 2013 financial year, its first year as a listed company on the NSE.

  • New prudential guidelines for banks imminent

    New prudential guidelines for banks imminent

    Global financial authorities are considering a review of prudential guidelines for banks in relation to their equity investments in funds.

    The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a body of global financial authorities, at the weekend published a set of proposals that would revise the prudential treatment of banks’ equity investments in funds.

    The revised guideline is expected to address the issue of underlying risk and leverage as well as align banks’ investments in the context of the globally accepted risk-based capital framework.

    “In reviewing the existing standard for banks’ equity investments in funds, the Committee’s objective was to develop an appropriately risk sensitive and consistently applied risk-based capital regime. The existing standard would benefit from further clarity in some areas. In addition, it does not require banks to reflect a fund’s leverage when determining capital requirements associated with their investments in a fund, even though leverage is an important risk driver,” the Committee stated.

    It pointed out that the revised standard will also help to address risks associated with banks’ interactions with shadow banking entities, thus contributing to the broader effort by the Financial Stability Board to strengthen the oversight and regulation of shadow banking.

    It added that the revised standard will more appropriately reflect the risk of a fund’s underlying investments and its leverage.

    The proposed revision is expected to undergo a global review up till October 4, 2013, following which the committee will coordinate a final draft.