Nico Holdings plc upbeat on profit growth

Nico Holdings plc says it has registered a profit after tax of MK12.7 billion, a 15 percentage growth point from Mk 11 billion it registered in the previous financial year.

The group’s interim chairman Gaffer Hassam described this as a good development looking at the holdings’ profits downward trend for the past years.

Hassam told members of the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE)-listed financial services firm that has interests in insurance, banking and property management, during the annual general meeting (AGM) held in Blantyre.

“Financial performance of the group in 2018 was satisfactory despite an ever changing regulatory environment and amidst increasing competition in the financial services industry,” he said.

The Chairman singled out NBS bank, Nico life, Nico pensions and Nico asset management as the best performers in the year under its subsidiaries.

Hassam said the drive for performance has been the strategies the group has been implementing such as increased focus on customer experience and an improvement in the processes.

“We will continue to invest in our systems and processes to ensure that we deliver value and convenience in meeting our customers’ needs. The financial position of the group continued to strengthen despite the increased provisions that we have had to make as we implemented some international accounting standards for the first time,” said Hassam.

Hassam said the investor confidence in the brand continues to grow represented by positive movements of the share price which closed at K43 compared to K34 in 2018.

The group also registered growth in revenue of 137 billion compared to Mk134 billion in 2017. Total profit for the year grew to MK13 billion from MK12 billion in 2017.

According to Hassam, the growth in profitability is mainly due to continued growth of the asset management business and significant improvement in the banking business.

Based on the 2018 performance, Nico Holdings p/c board of directors declared a final dividend of MK313 million representing 30 tambala per share.

On the other hand, Hassam expressed hope that his holdings will register much growth in the current year as a result of the predictable good macro-economic fundamentals in the economies of the country and countries within which they operate.

The group owns listed NBS Bank, Nico General Insurance, Nico Life Insurance, Nico Technologies and Nico Asset Managers Limited and has footprints in Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda where it is operating general insurance business.

In 2013, South Africa-based financial services group Sanlam Emerging Market (SEM) Proprietary Limited bought 49 percent stake of Nico Holdings shareholding in general insurance business in Malawi, Zambia and Uganda.

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