Royal Exchange assures shareholders of better deal

Royal Exchange Plc, an underwriting firm, has assured its shareholders of stronger performance and increased returns on investment despite challenges faced in the 2023 financial year.

The company gave the assurance at its 54th yearly general meeting held in Lagos.

At the AGM themed ‘Overcoming Challenges, Generating Growth’, the Group Chairman of Royal Exchange Plc, Kenny Odogwu, said 2022 was one of the most challenging years in the history of modern times, characterised by devastating economic and geopolitical uncertainties.

According to Odogwu, the company is taking proactive measures to remain relevant in the face of the domestic and global economic challenges. “We are deploying strategies, which will make us responsive and adaptive to the economic challenges and meet the shareholders yearning and expectations.”

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He said the company would continue to look at its subsidiaries to make them productive while exiting from those that are not contributing adequately to the group.

He also said that despite the challenging operating environment in 2022, Royal Exchange had successfully recapitalized three of its subsidiaries with investments from strategic investors for growth, and disposed of a long loss-making subsidiary with reversionary interest to invest within a year, should its fundamentals change.

According to him, the underwriting firm recorded an increase in net income of 16.5 per cent from N292 million to N340 million for the financial year 2021 and 2022, respectively. At the same time, the total expenses increased by 76.5 per cent from N277 million to N488 million for the financial year of 2021 and 2022 respectively, largely because of the restatement of its accounts in 2021 for IFRS compliance.

The group’s loss after tax was reduced materially by 83.2 per cent from N1.7 billion to N288 million for the financial years 2021 and 2022.