By Sola Alabadan
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc grew its profit before tax grew from N772.5 million in 2020 to N971.6 million in 2021, representing a growth of about 26 percent, while its profit after tax increased by 17 percent, from N677.9 million in 2020 to N790.6 million in 2021.
The Chairman of CHI, Obinna Ekezie, who announced this to the shareholders of the Insurance company at its 27th Annual General Meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, also informed that the gross premium income rose from N9.8 billion in 2020 to N10.5 billion in 2021, representing a 7.4 percent growth.
In keeping faith with the company’s promise to always delight its shareholders for their commitment and loyalty to the organisation, a dividend of N433.6 million was declared for the year ended 31st December, 2021. This translates to four kobo per share payable to all shareholders whose names appeared in the company’s register.
CHI had earlier paid N216.8 million interim dividend at two kobo per share and it intends to pay final dividend of N216.8 million amounting to 2 kobo per share as well, thereby, bringing the total dividend payment to N433.6 million.
In his address to the shareholders at the annual meeting, the Group Managing Director of CHI, Mr Eddie Efekoha said:
“Similarly, the Group’s total assets rose from N14.3bn in 2020 to N15.7bn in 2021, approximately 10 per cent growth.”
“The 2021 Financial Year was filled with a lot of hopes for us all, not just in the Insurance Industry and by extension the Financial Services Sector, but the entire economy”.
He added that, “It was a year which marked the near full reopening of the operations space for businesses to thrive, following the easing of the global lockdowns and restrictions that characterised the previous year 2020”..
“For us in Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, our story is not different from that of the nation as the year whose operations we are reviewing during this 27th Annual General Meeting marks another positive outing for us in the various key financial indices
“Overview of our optimism for 2021 was bolstered by the projection of a 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent GDP growth for Nigeria by International Financial Institutions like the IMF and World Bank respectively, up from the 1.94 percent contraction in 2020”.
Efekoha emphasised that the company was able to achieve the feat due to measures it applied to cut cost, saying “I am glad to inform you that some prudent cost control measures we put in place helped us to attain an all-time high Profit Before Taxation of N971.7m in 2021”.
