NEM Insurance Announces 6kobo Dividend for Shareholders

NEM Insurance plc, at its 46th annual general meeting held in Lagos recently, announced a dividend of 6 kobo per share, for its shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2015.

With this, the company, paid a total of N3.96billion to its shareholders for the year under review, representing an increase of 34.6 percent over a total dividend of N 2.9 billion it paid in the preceding period.

Announcing this to shareholders at the meeting, NEM Insurance chairman, Chief Adewale Teluwo, said the company paid the above higher dividend, despite that its performance in the year under review was not better than the previous year.

According to him, notwithstanding the state of the country’s economy, NEM insurance, recorded good performance with Gross Premium increase of 10.8percent over the previous period.

Teluwo, said NEM Insurance, recorded gross premium of N10.9billion in 2015, while that of 2014 was N9.8billion.

According to him, the parent company, achieved an increase of 9.5percent over the preceding period, thus posting N10.3billion premium for 2015 against 2014 figure of N9.4billion.

Commenting on other results in the company’s balance sheet, the NEM Insurance boss, said,

“Even though rates crashed to an average of 4 percent, per annum, the Group, generated an Investment Income of N746.2 million during the year under review, while that of the preceding period was N607.8 million; an increase of 22.8 percent.”

He said the income, recorded by the parent company, also shot up by 20.7 percent over that of the year 2014, meaning that the company in this regard, generated N676.4 million in 2015 and N560.4 million in 2014.

On claims paid by the company for the period, he said it increased significantly compared to the amount paid during the same period in 2014.

“Claims paid by the Group during the reporting year, was N3.96billion, an increase of 34.6 percent over that of the preceding period which was N2.9 billion”.

He explained reason for the increased claims figure, saying it was as a result of one single huge claim of about N600million paid out by the parent company, adding that this caused the company to witness 33.1 percent increase in its claims payment.

“It was recorded over that of the previous period by the Parent Company. The figure for 2015 was N3.8billion whereas that of 2014 was N2.9billion”, he said. According to the NEM Insurance boss, the above scenario, had a significant impact on the company’s bottom line, adding that the profit before tax recorded by the group for the reporting year, declined by 66.1 percent over the preceding period, while that of the Parent company, declined by 67.9percent.

He said aside the claims issue, increase in outstanding claims reserve for the period also led to the decline in the profit of the group but expressed hope that the reserve would boost the profit for the next reporting period.According to the chairman, NEM Group Financial Assets for the reporting period, increased by 16.8 percent over that of the previous period.

He explained that this was one of the reasons for the increased investment income, adding that the parent company recorded an increase of 16.5 percent on this item.

“The Group Total Assets and Total Equity increased by 11.5 percent and 5.7percent respectively; while those of the Parent Company increased by 10.1 percent and 5.2 percent respectively.

“Earnings per share for the year was 14 kobo; a decrease of 51.7 percent from that of the preceding year which was 29 kobo.Teluwo, said NEM Insurance, implemented the National Insurance Commission’s (NAICOM) code of corporate governance of 2008, which requires that the tenor of non-executive directors of insurance companies, should not exceed nine years.”