Food and Agro-Allied Company, Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc on Wednesday declared a dividend of N2.15k per ordinary share of 50kobo for the financial year-ended March 31, 2022.
The dividend which was approved at its 62nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, was 30 per cent higher than the previous year, which was N1.65.
According to the Board Vice Chairman, Mr. Paul Gbededo, who represented the Board Chairman, Mr. John Coumantaros at the AGM, the dividend would be paid on September 8, 2022 to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members at close of business on 12th August 2022.
Shareholders commended the performance and demanded for a higher dividend. A shareholder, Mrs. Bakare Oluwayemisi said the dividend was expected to be higher than the declared N2.15 considering the earnings per share.
The shareholders also demanded conversion of unclaimed shares to bonus for them; noting that the last bonus was paid in 2015.
Sir Sunny Nwosu, a shareholder said, “If you capitalise the shares, give us at least ‘one for ten’ instead of cancelling 899,604,394 units of unissued ordinary shares, convert them to bonus.”
The shareholders at the AGM voted in favour of authorising the Directors to raise additional capital for the company to the tune of N200bn.
They also voted in favour of removal and/or separate the manufacturing business and/or undertakings currently being varied on by FMN Plc and transfer the same to a new entity to be constituted and to be wholly owned by FMN Plc subject to all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals.
“We will look at the pros and cons of either scrapping them or issuing them out,” Gbededo assured the shareholders.
Coumantaros maintained that despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, the Group delivered solid performance.
“Following an increase in local demand and export operations, the segment achieved significant improvements, contributing as much as 47percent (N19bn) to the Group’s Profit Before Tax.”
The overall profit before tax was up by 11percent from N37billion in 2020/2021 to N41bn while profit after tax increased by 9percent from N26bn to N28bn in the year under review.
