Business
Consolidated Hallmark Holdings Declares N0.25k Dividend, Revenue Rises By 47%
BY NKECHI BAECHE-ESEZOBOR—Consolidated Hallmark Holdings Plc, has reported a robust 47 per cent growth in insurance revenue for the 2025 financial year, alongside a record-breaking dividend payout, despite navigating severe capital market volatility that impacted its bottom line.
Speaking at the group’s 3rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, Group Chairman Shuaibu Idris disclosed that insurance revenue surged to N43.27 billion in 2025, up from N29.42 billion in the previous fiscal year.
The net insurance service result—reflecting performance after meeting claims, reinsurance obligations, and direct costs—rose sharply by 121 per cent to N6.85 billion, up from N3.10 billion in 2024.
Additionally, non-insurance operations picked up significant momentum, with operating and other non-insurance income jumping 61 per cent from N4.09 billion to N6.59 billion.
The group’s Profit Before Tax (PBT) declined to N8.44 billion from N22.65 billion in 2024. He attributed this drop entirely to a sharp decline in the mark-to-market valuation of the group’s capital market investments.
Cash and cash equivalents nearly doubled, climbing 96 per cent to N7.38 billion while financial assets grew 65 per cent to N45.90 billion.
Total assets expanded by 33 per cent to N75.94 billion, while shareholders’ funds marked a 21 per cent growth.
He noted that the fundamentals of the investment remained strong and hold better prospects for the future,” Idris stated, noting that consistency and diversity served as the group’s strength in a volatile year.
The group’s balance sheet remained highly liquid and well-capitalized:
Following its outstanding performance the board proposed a final dividend of 15 kobo per share. When combined with the 10 kobo interim dividend already distributed, CHH’s total dividend for the year stands at 25 kobo per share.
“This is the highest dividend that we have ever paid,” Idris told shareholders, expressing optimism about maintaining the growth trajectory.
Also, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, who’s responding to shareholders questions, confirmed that the financial holding structure is perfectly insulated from recapitalization pressures.
“Our Group does not require additional capital to meet the new regulatory thresholds. We are not compelled to seek mergers or external funding, as our capital base remains strong and sufficient,” Efekoha asserted.
Efekoha noted that businesses and individuals are increasingly turning to dependable financial protection amid macro-economic uncertainties, and added that it achieved its resilience through disciplined underwriting, cost optimization, and rigorous operational processes across its subsidiaries.
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Dangote Refinery has completed the endorsement of the offer documents for its initial public offering, putting it on course to launch the $1.6 billion public equity sale, regarded as Africa’s largest ever, next week.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man and owner of the 700,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant, led the sign-off ceremony in Lagos on Monday in the presence of advisers and other parties to the pan-African offering, which aspires to source about N2.2 trillion from investors.
The minimum subscription of the offer is 10 ordinary shares, translating to N5,250, Mr Dangote told the event.
Lagos-based Vetiva Advisory Services Limited is coordinating the capital raise.
The ceremony follows a key approval by the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), last week, with 4.1 billion shares up for subscription at N525 ($0.40) per unit.
The maiden share offer values the refinery at nearly $50 billion, and plans to plough the proceeds into doubling the current capacity of the facility, which lies on a 6,180-acre expanse on the outskirts of Lagos, to 1.4 million bpd.
That could lift the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange by more than one third when the shares are listed on the local bourse later this year.
A cross-border listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the continent’s biggest bourse, is in the works, just as the company is giving thought to quoting the stock in Egypt, Kenya, Ghana and Rwanda.
In July, a private placement heralding the IPO raised $2.5 billion from institutional investors and HNIs, oversubscribed by 270 per cent.
Unmet demand from the private share sale could find its way into the IPO, which, long before its approval was announced, had drawn vast interest across Nigeria, where the SEC was impelled in June to stop all the marketing related to the share sale.
The regulator’s action followed reports that many retail investors, including those with little or no knowledge of how equity investment works, were already opening trading accounts ahead of the IPO.
Nevertheless, investor appetite is growing fast beyond retail level, with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) which according to Bloomberg on Monday, was said to have opened conversations with the refinery towards buying a stake in it.
The global media outlet, citing interviews with sources, noted that an insider at ADNOC said Dangote Refinery has also received approaches from other big investors.
READ ALSO: AFC leads investment in Dangote Refinery’s $2.5bn private placement
Potential model for aspiring companies
The IPO’s launch on 14 September will ride on the improved liquidity Nigeria expects to attract from foreign portfolio capital, following the country’s restoration to frontier market status by FTSE Russell after a near-three-year downgrade that bogged it down under unclassified market status, consequently deterring international investors.
Likewise, an IPO on this scale could offer a template to similarly big Nigerian companies raring to become public quoted firms and, by so doing, unlock access to financing through the capital market.
State-owned energy company NNPC Limited has been fiddling with the idea of going public and holding an IPO since 2021 after transitioning into gaining limited liability status, reviving the talks around the push last November.
The company, whose public image has long been marred by opacity in its operations and lack of transparency in publishing its accounts, may borrow a leaf from Dangote Refinery’s listing.
In June, the refinery, which commenced production in January 2024, toppled the US to become the biggest external supplier of jet fuel to Europe, maintaining the feat in July.
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