The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc Board of Directors has approved the audited report and accounts of the bank for the year ended December 31, 2017. At the board meeting on Monday, the directors also approved the payment of final dividend for the 2017 business year.
The bank’s Group Company Secretary, Bili Odum, confirmed the approval of the audited report and proposal for dividend payment, noting that the approved audited report has been forwarded to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for endorsement.
He said the actual final dividend recommendation and the audited report would be released to the investing public after the approval of the apex bank.
UBA’s share price continued its rally on Monday with a gain of 1.56 per cent to close at N13 per share. Ahead of the board meeting, it had risen by 2.48 per cent at the weekend, 343 per cent above equities market’s average gain of 0.56 per cent. As the equities market staged its first rally in five days last Friday, UBA chalked up 31 kobo to close at N12.80 per share.
The All Share Index (ASI)-the benchmark index at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded average gain of 1.22 per cent and 0.56 per cent on Monday and Friday respectively.
UBA’s share price rose by 129 per cent in 2017 while it has performed above average so far in 2018 with average year-to-date return of 24.3 per cent at the opening of the stock market on Monday.
Market sources said they expected the bank to increase its dividend payout, citing the improvement in the overall performance of the bank in 2017.
UBA had earlier paid an interim dividend of 20 kobo per share, after the audit of its 2017 half-year results. It declared a final dividend of 55 kobo per share, in addition to an interim dividend of 20 kobo for the 2016 business year.
As a mark of its sound corporate governance and in line with NSE Rule Book and the Amendments to the Listing Rules, UBA had announced commencement of its closed period on Friday, January 12, 2018, implying 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 of the bank until 24 hours after the publication of its audited full year reports and accounts for 2017.
Key extracts of the interim report and accounts of the bank for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2017, showed that gross earnings rose by 26 per cent while pre and post tax profits grew by 33.2 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.