The founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia is expected to earn a massive sum of N9.575 billion in dividend for the financial year ended December 2020

The highly revered banker is the single majority shareholder of Zenith Bank as he directly owns 3,546,199,395 units of the fast-rising bank stock out of the 31,396,493,787 ordinary shares available. This gives him an 11.29% direct interest in the Tier -1 bank.

It’s however important to note that such dividend is subject to a 10% withholding tax in Nigeria.

READ: Is Zenith Bank thriving on the strength of sound financial indices?

Recall that about a day ago, the Board of Directors of the bank in a statement released via the Nigerian Stock Exchange proposed a final dividend of N2.70, amounting to a total payout of N3.00 per share for the financial year 2020 (interim: N0.30).

This proposal reflects the past year’s robust performance and appears to signal that Zenith bank remains well-positioned to perform in the current financial year. However, there was a lower payout ratio at 40.9% compared to FY’19 (42.1%).

• Key earnings drivers to the financial year performance under review were a 90 basis points drop in the cost of funds to 2.1%, which propelled net interest income (+12.2% YoY) and a 3.8x jump in revaluation gains to N43.4 billion.
• These offset pressures from operating costs (the cost to income ratio rose 1.2ppts to 50.0%) and impairment charges (cost of risk rose 40basis points to 1.5%)

READ: Jim Ovia: From a clerk to founder of Nigeria’s most profitable bank

Described as the ‘Godfather of banking in Nigeria’ by Forbes Africa, Jim Ovia is quite popular for his business dexterity and leadership skills, especially in the banking sector.

His early interest in technology was the reason Zenith Bank became the first Nigerian company to have a functional website in 1995 and was able to smoothly migrate its operations from analog times to a digital era.

From a single branch in a residential building, Zenith Bank now has hundreds of branches all over Nigeria and several subsidiaries in other countries. The bank became a Public Limited Company in 2001 and was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), and later on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

On the 27th of April 2007, Zenith Bank Plc became the first Nigerian bank in 25 years to be licensed by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), giving rise to Zenith Bank UK Limited.

The Nigerian stock market ended the past week cumulatively on a bearish note.

The NSE All-Share Index and Market Capitalization depreciated by 0.63% and 0.61% to close the week at 40,186.70 index points and N21.026 trillion respectively.

Local investors are currently hunting for greater returns on investment thus increasingly selling off their equity positions and plowing the proceeds in fixed income instruments at a time majority of companies’ earnings reports for 2020 are yet to be issued.

READ: Dangote, Zenith Bank, Champion plunge, Nigerian stock investors lose N112 billion

The latest outcome of the Nigerian Treasury Bill auction points towards yield elevation in the short term.

The most recent data retrieved from CardinalStone Research revealed benchmark yields advanced by an average of 10 basis points.

The overnight and open buyback rates rose by c.17.00% apiece to 20.50% and 20.00% respectively, following the retail FX auction conducted last Friday alongside OMO and bond auction settlements.

Also, the sentiment seems to have reversed given the mixed signal from the fixed income market that yields may begin to rise faster-than-anticipated after the outcome of the last OMO and NTB auctions conducted by the CBN,” said Abiodun Keripe, Managing Director, Afrinvest Research. 

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On the foreign side, Stephen Innes, Chief Global Market Strategist at Axi in a note to Nairametrics spoke on the same prevailing conditions weighing hard on the world’s biggest and most liquid stock market. He buttressed more on rising U.S Treasury yields, an arch-enemy to U.S stocks, as investors switch their attention momentarily to the bond market;

“US equities were weaker Friday while US 10-year yields rose a further 4bps to 1.34%. Those moves were capping off the overriding trend in markets last week: growing concerns about inflation risks pushing nominal bond yields higher and weighing on the equity rally.

READ: This US stock gained 185% since we selected it

“The Biden administration continues to stay on message stressing Congress’s need to pass a significant fiscal package downplaying recent more robust economic data as its full-throttle as a package exceeding US$1.9 trillion heads for a House vote this week in a fast and furious attempt to get the US back to full employment next year.

“The unprecedented and highly stimulatory policy is an attempt to exceed one million jobs a month from April to September. Still, it underscores the narrower timeline from easing to tightening than post-GFC. And suggest taper tantrum fears are understandable even if severe inflation is still a 2022 issue,” Innes said.

What to expect: That being said, timing is still everything. The next leg of the reflation will have to be carried more and more by a continued recovery in economic growth, as fiscal and monetary stimulus gets increasingly packed into the prices of global equities.