IEI-Anchor Pension targets N3bn share capital

The Managing Director of IEI-Anchor Pension Managers, Solomon Okoli has assured shareholders that the company has overcome its teething problems and is now positioned for sustainable growth and profitability.

Consequently, Okoli told the shareholders at the company’s first annual general meeting in Abuja last week that at the moment, the company has extended operations to 30 states of the federation, servicing over 75,000 customers and managing a couple of states’ staff pension.

Already, shareholders of the company have voted to increase the company’s share capital from N2.222 billion to N3 billion in a move to accommodate increasing strategic partners’ interests that could help expand the business further.

The company, within eight years grew shareholders’ funds more than eight folds from N150 million in 2005 to N1.240 billion in 2013, stressing that expansion efforts so far have repositioned the company for better performance even as the half year results have shown.

The chief executive said that the long-term plan of the company is to be among tier one PFAs inNigeria, with the threshold of a minimum of N100 billion in assets under management.

He explained that the cost of expansion had eaten into the company’s revenue and consequently, profit and was confident of the company’s outlook.

“Our expansion may not be profitable immediately, but as we scale up over time, we will get through this and we are already seeing this in 2014. We are already seeing a lot of improvements.

“We are seeing some of the locations that we opened last year being more profitable now. We are expanding our customer base, and the contribution level is beginning to yield and adding to the bottom line,” Okoli stated.

According to him, part of the expansion strategies is to raise the company’s share capital to N3 billion in order to be positioned for possible acquisition moves.

“People outside are beginning to see the opportunities out there and they are getting interested in what we are doing and want to come in to be part of us. If we do not increase our share capital, cannot accommodate such people to be part of the company. So we want to have the flexibility and use the capital to expand the business,” he said of the company’s new share capital.

“The other thing is to give room for the strategic acquisition. For some of the acquisitions, it is not everybody that want to partner with you can just take cash and walk away. They may also want to part of the owners, therefore, they need that room to also give them a stake.

“The other thing is that if Pension Commission requires PFAs to increase capital, we have the flexibility to adapt faster than those that will start the process when it happens, so we want to be prepared.

“Finally, for our employees, we want to give some of them a sense of ownership as part of our reward system, which includes the option to be part of the company,” Okoli added.

Silas Jonathan Zwingina chairman of the company said despite decline in revenue in 2013, a modest profit-after-tax of N12.8 million was recorded, however, lower than the N54 million in 2012, assuring that the company was on track for third consecutive year of profitability.


- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com