Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc has indicated that a conversion price of N24.79 per share for any shareholder that elects to convert his cash dividend to scrip dividend under the ongoing convertible policy of the holding company.
The board of the holding company has recommended payment of N21 billion as dividend for the 2019 business year, implying a dividend per share of N2, 33.3 per cent increase on N1.50 per share paid for the 2018 business year.
Under the conversion programme, the reference price to be used in determining any scrip dividend allotment shall be the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the company’s shares on the NSE for the five business days commencing on the day the ordinary shares are first quoted ex-dividend.
Where a shareholder elects to receive the whole or a part of his dividends by way of new ordinary shares, such scrip shares shall only be allotted after receipt of any required regulatory. In order to be valid, any scrip dividend election by shareholders must be made to the company’s Registrars, not later than seven days prior to any dividend payment date.
“With respect to the N2 dividend indicated above, the reference price for determining the scrip dividend allotment is N24.79,” Stanbic IBTC Holdings stated.
Stanbic IBTC Holdings recorded a net profit of N75.04 billion in 2019 as the financial holding company sustained steady growths across key performance indicators.
Key extracts of the audited report and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2019 showed that gross earnings rose from N222.36 billion in 2018 to N233.81 billion. Profit before tax increased from N88.15 billion in 2018 to N90.93 billion in 2019.
Profit after tax also improved marginally from N74.4 billion to N75.04 billion. Earnings per share however dropped from N7.04 in 2018 to N6.92 in 2019. The decline in earnings per share was due to additional shares due to cash-to-scrip dividend conversion policy of the company.
Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Yinka Sanni, said the financial results were largely in line with market guidance as the company achieved double digit growth in both assets under management and loans.
He pointed out that loan-to-deposit ratio was 67.5 per cent, above the regulatory minimum of 65 per cent as at the year end while non-performing loans ratio was 3.9 per cent, similar level with prior year and within acceptable limit of 5.0 per cent.
“The group’s total assets grew by 13 per cent aided by the growth in loans and financial investments portfolio. Our personal and business banking division contributed to profit yet again with a significant improvement in profit after tax year-on-year.
Cost of risk was 0.2 per cent compared to the writeback in prior year due to a nonoccurrence of a significant recovery, however it is still well below our guidance of 3.0 per cent.
Our sustained focus on cost containment coupled with revenue growth during the year yielded an improvement in cost-to-income ratio of 50.4 per cent from 52.9 per cent in 2018,” Sanni said.
While acknowledging that the regulatory and economic environment could sometimes be challenging, Sanni said the company remained resolute in its target to emerge as Nigeria’s leading end-to-end financial solutions provider.
“While we look to 2020 with great optimism, we are fully aware of the challenging macro-economic and regulatory headwinds that we must contend with as we enter a new decade. Nonetheless, our strategic journey towards becoming the leading end-to-end financial solutions provider by 2023 continues as we leverage our universal capabilities whilst focusing on cost management, digitisation and client centricity in accelerating growth in 2020,” Sanni said.
He added that the Stanbic IBTC continues to benefit from its adoption of a digital strategy as well as operating a holdings company structure which enables subsidiaries to cross-sell and also leverage expertise within the group.
