LPI announces dividend and bonus issue

PETALING JAYA: LPI Capital Bhd has proposed a bonus issue on the basis of one bonus share for every five existing shares.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the insurance company said the bonus issue would entail the issuance of up to 66.4 million bonus shares.

It said the bonus issue is aimed at rewarding existing shareholders for their loyalty and continuous support as well as increasing the share capital of the company to a level that will better reflect the current scale of operations and assets employed by LPI and its subsidiaries.

LPI said the bonus issue will be capitalised at RM1 for each bonus share with RM6.26mil from the share premium account of the com- pany, while the remaining RM60.14mil will be from its retained earnings.

“Barring any unforeseen circumstances and subject to all requisite approvals being obtained, the proposed bonus issue is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2018,” said the company.

In a separate statement to the local bourse yesterday, LPI announced that it is declaring a second interim single-tier dividend of 45 sen per share, to be paid on Feb 6.

Separately, LPI announced that its net profit for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017 rose 1.9% to RM83mil from RM81.45mil previously, largely contributed by profit from the general insurance segment.

Revenue during the quarter increased to RM363.49mil from RM355.55mil a year earlier.

The company said revenue was mainly driven by growth in gross earned premiums of RM7.3mil (or 2.2%) from its general insurance segment.

For its financial year ended Dec 31, 2017, meanwhile, LPI’s net profit dropped to RM313.79mil from RM437.22mil in the previous corresponding period.

“The decrease came from the investment holding segment, which recorded a lower profit before tax of RM29.4mil from RM179.7mil previously, mainly due to the non-recurring gains of RM150.4mil from the sale of equity investment in 2016.”

Revenue in 2017, meanwhile, increased to RM1.47bil from RM1.38bil a year earlier, which was largely contributed by the general insurance segment.

On its prospects for the year ahead, LPI said domestic demand is expected to remain the key source of growth for the company.

“The external sector will provide additional impetus to the economy, benefitting from the improvement in global growth. Overall, the assessment is for growth to remain strong in 2018.

“We are, nevertheless, confident that the group would be able to ride the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented to report another favourable performance for 2018.”