In what may be vindication of the board’s decision to diversify from its traditional registrars business, which necessitated a name change, following which it dropped the key word: Registrars, adopting the name- African Prudential Plc, directors of the company, on Monday reported a 39.14% revenue growth.
Revenue for the year rose to N3.315bn from N2.418bn in 2016, boosted by net interest income which grew to N2.38bn from N1.424bn, significantly surpassing the N935.434m “registrars fee income”, representing a decline from previous year’s N994.394m.
Other income rose to N49.196m from N29.214m; even as impairment loss on financial assets rose to N157.296m from N147.46m; while operating expenses climbed 29.58% year-on-year from N1bn in 2016 to N1.29bn. Personnel expenses dropped slightly from N353.413m in 2016 to N327.144m; followed by impairment loss on financial assets of N157.296m, up from prior year’s N147.46m. Other operating expenses climbed to N630.849m from N455.492m; depreciation and amortization also rose to N52.126m from N45.416m; just as finance charges, which was previously non-existence, stood at N130.703m
Profit before tax jumped 42.95% up to N2.066bn from N1.445bn; income tax expense dropped to N352.116m from N426.763m; while Net profit grew by 68.25% from N1.019bn in the preceding year to N1.714bn; translating to EPS of 85 kobo, from 51 kobo, from which the company has recommended a 40 kobo dividend to shareholders at the next annual general meeting.
Commenting, Peter Ashade, the company’s Managing Director and chief executive said the impressive performance was “despite the challenging operating environment in 2017.”
He recalled that in the period under review, the board “emphasized the need for diversification of our business portfolio to achieve long term sustainability and viability of our business which necessitated the change of name that was approved at the last Annual General Meeting.
“I am happy to report that the change of Name from Africa Prudential Registrars Plc to Africa Prudential Plc was duly completed in 2017 and we have commenced implementation of our diversification strategy. Worthy of note is the fact that the new Africa Prudential Plc is still a strong player in the registrars’ business and still intends on remaining a leading registrar firm in Nigeria and grow to become a leader in Africa in the near future,” he added.