Shareholders of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc went home with a cumulative N325million dividend amounting to 3kobo per ordinary share of 50 kobo, in its 2022 financial year end.
This, according to the insurer, was in line with its firm belief in the Return On Investments to Shareholders through consistent dividend payment.
Addressing the shareholders at the 2022 annual general meeting(AGM) in Lagos yesterday, the chairman, CHI, Obinna Ekezie said: “this(dividend) as usual, is subject to the appropriate Withholding Tax. Accounts of qualifying shareholders who have updated their account records with the Registrars shall be credited beginning from the end of this meeting, upon your approval.” During its 2022 Financial Year, he stressed that the company’s result showed a growth of 22 per cent in Gross Premium Written(GPW) from N10.5 billion in 2021 to N12,8 billion in 2022 while its Underwriting Profit grew from N1.9 billion in 2021 to N2.3 billion in 2022 even as its Total Assets stood at N18.5billion when compared with the N15.6 billion posted in 2021.
“Your company also maintained its unbroken profitability streak by growing Profit Before Taxation to N 1,407,704,796 from the N971,674,800 of 2021 while total profit attributable to shareholders has attained a billion-nairamark, having hit N1,017,432,947 from
N923,095,723 in 2021,” he informed the shareholders. On his part, the group managing director/CEO, said, the insurer recorded a 45 per cent increase (over prior year) in Profit Before Taxation from N971.6million in 2021 to N1.407 billion in 2022 with Profit After Taxation also grew by 26 per cent over prior year from N790.6 million in 2021 to N995.98 million in 2022, while growing underwriting profit by 24 per cent.
On the business outlook, he said, the horizon looks bright as a plethora of factors point to a robust growth in insurance operations even as the company is optimistic of a more aggressive penetration of insurance services with technology.
“Our self-service portal(www.einsurance.chiplc.com) is expected to be more active going forward. Customers and prospects alike can access some of our key classes of insurance including; Motor (Third Party, Comprehensive, CHI Prime (Third Party with limited own damage cover) and Goods-In-Transit. Motor Claims registration and tracking can also be carried seamlessly,” he pointed out.
Following the upward review of motor and fire insurance premium rates, he expects more income from the market, even as losses from the high cost of replacement parts are hopefully defrayed as consumers become increasingly aware of benefits derivable from having the appropriate insurance policies in place.
To him, “we have also been taking advantage of cross selling the products and services of all companies in the family and have gone a step further to ensure rewards for cross company sales of products by members of staff. These efforts shall certainly pay off, leading to higher volumes of revenue accrual when the Holdco structure fully unfolds, and more aggressive cross- selling efforts are made.”
