Barring any unforeseen circumstances, and in response to the expectations of its shareholders, the Board of Directors of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) will meet exactly in two weeks’ time to consider the financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2017 and also proposals for final dividend for the same year.
The meeting is scheduled for 10:00am on Monday, January 29, 2018.
The bank had earlier paid an interim dividend of 20 kobo per share to its shareholders following the audit of its 2017 Half Year performance.
Notably, in 2016, the board declared a final dividend of 55 kobo per share, in addition to the 20 kobo per share interim dividend it paid earlier.
With the bank’s earnings growth performance in the 2017 financial year, shareholders may have a bumper harvest for the final dividend of 2017 financial year. In the first nine months of 2017, UBA Group reported an impressive 33 per cent year-on-year growth in profit before tax to N78.3 billion, as against N58.8 billion profit declared in the corresponding period of 2016.
Notwithstanding higher effective tax rate, the profit after tax grew 23 per cent year-on-year to N60.9 billion, compared to N49.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2016.
Relying on the continuous improvement in customer service and growing market share across its African operations, the management, in a press release, noted the Group’s capacity to sustain the sterling earnings performance recorded in the first three quarters of 2017, and thus investors are betting for a strong finish to 2017.
“Whilst the bank’s results, we believe, are currently being audited, market has been bullish on the shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, gaining 129 per cent in 2017 to rank as one of the best performing stocks of the year. Year-to-date, the stock has also gained 18 per cent to close at N12.07 on Friday, January 12, 2018”, the statement said.
As a mark of its sound corporate governance and in line with NSE Rule Book and the Amendments to the Listing Rules, the bank announced commencement of its closed period on Friday, January 12, 2018, thus meaning that directors, persons discharging managerial responsibility, employees with sensitive information, advisers and consultants of the bank and their connected persons may not directly or indirectly deal in the securities (equity and debt) of the bank until 24 hours after the publication of its audited 2017 Full Year Reports and Accounts.