The Board of Directors of insurance underwriter, LASACO Assurance Plc, is proposing to pay its shareholders a dividend of 5k per share for full-year 2018. This indicates a marginal improvement over the 4k per share the company paid its shareholders for the corresponding period in 2017. However, payment is subject to shareholders’ approval in the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be announced later.
This, among other information, is contained in LASACO’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December, 2018, published on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) today.
Improvement of Key Performance Indicators: The Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of LASACO recorded an upsurge in the period under review.
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The rise of Gross Premiums Written: The company’s GPW rose significantly by 35% from N6.674 billion in 2017 to N9.014 billion in 2018.
Profit Before Tax (PBT): LASACO’s PBT however recorded a moderate increase from N854.273 million in 2017 to N958.199 million in the under review, representing a rise of 12%.
Profit After Tax (PAT): The company’s PAT inched up from N661.878 million in 2017 to N736.279 million in 2018, an increase of 11%.
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On the flip side, Investment Income dipped by 14% from N874.674 million posted in 2017 to N753.682 million in 2018. This implies that returns on LASACO’s investment in other businesses aside its core insurance business fell by 14%.
Similarly, other income plunged significantly by 67% from N576.425 million in 2017 to N190.525 million in 2018. Shareholders’ fund however, increased marginally from N8.156 billion in 2017 to N8.484 billion in 2018, signalling a 4% increase.
LASACO’s Earnings Per Share (EPS) rose marginally from 12k to 13k in response to increase in profit in the year under review.
What Earnings Per Share: Earnings Per Share represents how much each unit of a company’s shares has yielded in a particular period. It is calculated simply by dividing the outstanding shares by the Profit After Tax.
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