Nfi Insurance Goes Public, Raises Capital Base to N467m
Nigerian French Insurance Company Limited, the 16 years old underwriting firm which recently changed its name to Nfi Insurance Company Limited has again changed its nomenclature to become a public limited liability company. The new name is Nfi Insurance Plc.
The change in nomenclature was approved by owners of the company at the 16th Annual General Meeting of the underwriting firm in Lagos recently. Owners of the company also resolved to raise its capital base from N350 million to N467 million by way of a public offer of 234 million 50 kobo ordinary shares.
Decisions on these issues were reached at the meeting with the board securing the power on behalf of shareholders to re-denominated the existing 350 million N1 ordinary shares of the company into 700 million 50 kobo ordinary shares.
The company last year recorded a gross premium income totalling N392.56 million, a 13.78 percent increase from the N345.02 million recorded the previous year.
It raked in N298.85 million non-life net premium income and N62.23 million life premium income making up to N361.08 million, this is a 15.76 percent rise from the N311.91 million net premium income recorded the previous year.
The profit before tax made by the company last year amounted to N51.23 million as against N38.49 million recorded the previous year, a 33.10 percent improvement in profit. The company's after tax profit for last year stood at N41.23 million as against N33.48 million recorded the previous year and this translates to a 23.11 percent rise in profit after tax.
Meanwhile, the insurance fund that accrued in the company's books as at the end of last year was N107.68 million for non-life business and N119.27 million for life business. These translates to 16.99 percent rise in non-life insurance fund and a shortfall of 5.22 percent in life fund.
Its shareholders' fund also rose by 46 percent moving up from N246.14 million in 2002 to N359.36 million at the end of last year.
Each of the company's N1 ordinary share earned 23 kobo last year as against 22 kobo earned the previous year, a 4.55 percent increase while the company appropriated 25 kobo dividend to every N1 ordinary share held in the company by the end of last year.
With this performance, the board secured the approval of the shareholders to change the name of the company to Nfi Insurance Plc to reflect its public limited liability status. The board was also empowered to redenominate the existing shares of the company into 700 million 50 kobo ordinary shares as against 350 million N1 ordinary shares.
The shareholders also approved the increase in the company's authorised share capital to 1 billion 50 kobo ordinary shares and that same should be divided into different classes of shares.
Owners of the company at the meeting empowered the board to raise the capital base of the company from N350 million to N467 million by issuing additional 234 million 50 ordinary shares in a public offer.
Onwers of Nfi Insurance also resolved to designate N496.8 million 50 kobo ordinary shares of the company as founders shares while the rest remain ordinary shares.
The founders shares according to the categorisation include those held by the Chairman of the company, Chief (Dr.) Chris Ogunbanjo, as well as those held by Alhaji Ahmed Joda and Dr. Michael Omolayole, Directors of the company which rights would only be varied with the approval of holders of such shares.
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