SHAREHOLDERS of FBN Holdings Company (Holdco) Plc, on Friday, endorsed the company’s N33billion dividend, culminating to N1.00 per share due to every shareholders of the company for the 2012 financial year.
The shareholders who spoke at the 1st yearly general meeting of the company in Lagos recently commended the management for the efficient running of the affairs of the group, as well as repositioning it to profitability amid harsh economic environment.
The National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders’ Association of Nigeria, Sir. Sunny Nwosu who commended the management on the inaugural meeting submitted that with capital adequacy of the group which had exceeded regulatory requirement and the current balance sheet which stood at N3 trillion, the future of the company was secured.
Nwosu, therefore, advised the company to ‘work’ on its savings by accessing cheap fund in order to enhance its operations.
He expressed the need for the company to plan ahead on the removal of Commissions on Transactions (COT) in the next two years, while urging them to ensure that the process involved in disposal of its assets would be done in a transparent manner.
The National Chairman, Progressive Shareholders’ Association of Nigeria, Mr. Boniface Okezie urged the company to consolidate on the performance by ensuring that all the subsidiaries contributed to the overall growth of the company.
“The awards received so far have shown that the bank and the company are doing well. I commend the board for transforming the bank especially in the area of service delivery and I urge you to sustain this aggressive banking to consolidate on the efforts.”
Responding, Chief Executive officer of FBN Holdings, Bello Maccido said: “I am pleased to present the maiden results of FBN Holdings following its restructuring as a non- operational holding company with oversight of four major business groups; namely, commercial banking, investment banking and asset management, insurance and other financial services. During 2012, the group delivered robust results with a year-on-year increase in gross earnings of 31per cent, while profit after tax rose 306 per cent and the group delivered broad based improvement across all key ratios.
“Having now restructured the business, the focus is on consolidating the group’s leadership position in Nigeria, providing financial solutions to our customers across the entire value chain and growing our different business lines. Strong natural synergies and cross-selling opportunities exist across the group, and we are intensifying our efforts to facilitate the realisation of these synergies, crytallise cross selling opportunities and deepen the relationship with our customers.
“The solid retail platform in the commercial banking business gives us the ability to harness latent growth in our insurance and asset management businesses. We believe the approach of revenue maximisation, underscored by implementation of robust risk management practices, will enhance shareholder value in the medium to long term.”????
He explained that with FirstBank taking a leadership position in sub-saharan Africa, the group had put structures in place that would put other subsidiaries at the fore to contribute to the overall growth of the company.
In readiness for the COT, which would take effect in the next two years, Maccido said that the group had last year reinforced its position as a retail franchise by adding 70 branches to the existing ones, thereby bringing the number of branches to 807.
“This would drive the mobilisation of low cost deposit so that we locate ourselves to other areas and where we loose on COT, we compensate ourselves with volume.”
He said that the group had obtained license to operate on mobile money transfer (First money) without any equity partnership with any telecomm firm in order to derive the benefits inherent in the business.”
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