April 6 (Lagos) -
AIICO Group has proposed a dividend of 5 kobo per unit for full year 2017 subject to shareholders approval. This is a major improvement over last years dividend.
Qualification date is May 18.
AGM is on May 24th and dividend will be paid on May 25th.
AIICO Group consists of
AIICO Insurance Plc,
AIICO Capital Ltd and
AIICO Multishield HMO and
AIICO Pension Managers Ltd.
AIICO is some of the oldest players in Nigeria's Insurance sector. It is known for high Claim claim payout ratio and many of its managers go on to head other Insurance Companies of Nigeria.
Shares of
AIICO closed higher by 4.62% today at 68 Kobo per unit at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos.
We should expect these shares to move sharply higher because last years dividend was 2 Kobo so this is an improvement of 150% that should translate into stock price improvement somewhere near that level.
But we also know that
NSE investors punish Insurance sector like no other sector. In our opinion, there is no way these shares should be trading so low especially when smaller and newer Companies have higher valuations than this long time giant of Nigerian Insurance sector.
It boils down to the question whether Nigerian stock market is ready to support home grown Insurance Companies over foreign players who have massive Capital base and come to Nigeria through Mergers and acquisitions and start competing with home grown Companies who have created their Capital base over years of operations.
NAICOM, the Insurance regulator should do something about this and make it a level playing field for home grown Nigerian Insurance Companies.
That is a long conversation for another day. For now that's a great improvement from
AIICO over last year and shareholders will be happy about the fact that Company is moving in the right direction.
reporting for easykobo.com on Friday, April 6 2018 from Lagos, Nigeria