Linkage Assurance promises shareholders dividend

By Abdul Olalekan

Linkage Assurance Plc has promised its shareholders that the future looks bright for the company, given the result of its restructuring which is beginning to impact on its overall performance.

It added that the firm will soon pay dividends to its teeming shareholders nationwide, if this positive result continues.

The Managing Director of the firm, Dr Pius Apere, while responding to shareholders questions at the Company’s 22 Annual General Meeting in Lagos said, bad days are over for the company, assuring that shareholders will soon start to earn dividends.

We have got to the end of the tunnel where dividend will start coming, Apere assured.

Apere, who was recently appointed the managing director and chief executive officer of the company, stated that the figures from its 2016 unaudited accounts, plus expected dividend from its investment would put smiles on the faces of shareholders.

He informed that the company has strengthened its human capital with new heads of department, while its marketing team has been beefed up with top flight insurance marketers and the results coming are fantastic.

“We have gone past the time when we measure our performance based on gross premium, we are now measuring based on bottom line. Going forward, there will be an improved communication between our company and the shareholders so that all of us will keep pace with developments in the company,” Dr Apere stated.

Chairman of the Company, John Eseimohkumo, while disclosing performance of the company in 2015, said its gross premium grew by 24 percent from N3.05 billion in 2014 to N3.79 billion, while net premium rose 25 percent to close N2.44 billion at the end of 2015.

Eseimohkumoh further disclosed that investment and other incomes rose by 26 percent from N1.19 billion in 2014 to N1.50 billion. Profit before tax also grew by 60 percent from N580.85 million in 2014 to N929 million, while profit before tax closed at N512.24 million, a growth of 58 percent.

Going forward, he said:  “we are confident that that in spite of the uncertainties in the economy, the future is still bright.”

To him, “In line with our strategic roadmap we shall continue the repositioning strategy aimed at transforming your company through a set of definitive strategic initiatives, as enunciated in our growth plan”.