Mr. Tayo Orekoya, President, Pearl Awards
The Board of Governors of the Pearl Awards Nigeria has nominated Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and 57 other quoted companies for the 2012 edition which is expected to hold on November 25.
The aforementioned commercial banks were nominated under the financial services (banking) sectoral leadership awards.
Speaking at a media conference in Lagos Tuesday, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pearl Awards, Mr. Tayo Orekoya, explained that nomination for this year’s awards were determined based on nine performance indices namely -Turnover Growth, Return on Equity, Earnings Yield, Share Appreciation, Dividend Cover, Dividend Yield, Net Asset Ratio, Dividend Growth and Profit Margin Ratio.
A.G Leventis Nigeria Plc, UAC of Nigeria Plc, Transcorp Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries, Nestle, Dangote Sugar, 7Up Bottling Company, and Unilever were some other quoted companies nominated under different categories.
Some other sectors under the awards includes conglomerates, consumer goods (breweries), financial services (insurance), healthcare (pharmaceuticals), industrial goods (building material) and consumer goods (household products).
He said: “As in the past, in order to ensure fairness, objectivity and authenticity in its assessment, the Research and Collation Sub-Committee, sourced and required data from annual reports of quoted companies duly filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Stock Exchange daily official lists for the year under consideration.
“The report of the Research and Collation Sub-Committee was reviewed and endorsed by the Board’s Technical Committee, which subsequently presented it to the full Board for consideration and approval.””
According to Orekoya, the 2012 edition would be in three main competitive categories namely the Sectoral Leadership Awards, the Market Excellence Awards and the Overall Highest Award category.
He further said: “Today, the Pearl Awards is widely acknowledged by capital market stakeholders including quoted companies, stockbrokers, and shareholders associations, amongst others, for its objectivity over the years.
“Nominees and winners of this year’s awards have reasons to be so recognised and rewarded as facts and figures available at our disposal have shown that quite a good number of companies strategized to improve remarkably on their previous performances. Their strategies have paid off, with some of them emerging winners, resulting in a boost to shareholders’ wealth, national economic development and the capital market benefitting by being on the path to steady recovery.”
Caption: Fund Manager, Intercontinental Integrity, Olurotimi Williams
Intercontinental Integrity Fund Records Improved Performance
Eromosele Abiodun
Despite the turbulence in the Nigerian financial sector last year, Intercontinental Integrity Fund Limited, recorded improved performance in its key bottom lines, the fund manager has said.
Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos yesterday, Receiver to Intercontinental Capital Markets Limited (ICML) Fund Manager, Olurotimi Williams, said its performance was attributable to the effort of the fund manager.
He said the company’s investment income grew by 18 per cent from N16 million in 2010 to N18.9 million in the review period.
“A display of management capacity to weather the storm during the period, the operating expense dropped considerably by 13 per cent, from N9.6 million in 2010 to N8.4 million. This resulted to net operating income of N11.9 million from N5.2 million in similar period a year ago.
“There is no gainsaying that the strong performance posted by the fund since its inception has always been borne out of the fund managers disciplined and focused approach to sector allocation and security selection, “he said.
He added that the successful conclusion of the merger between Intercontinental Bank and Access Bank Plc further strengthened the fund in all ramifications.
He said: “One can only imagine the mileage that will be achieved in 2012 given the quality of the crop of management and the Access Bank brand now evident. We strongly maintain that increasing wealth is creating opportunities and growing saving culture.
Already, by the benefit of hindsight, we believe that the uncertainty about the health of the banks has been greatly taken care of by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the associated benefits has started crystallising as banks are beginning to open up to lending.”
The industry, he stated, will leverage on young growing population as well as other factor like the growth in the financial sector of the economy and other positive impact of various reforms in the banking, insurance, mortgage and microfinance sectors.
“It is worthy to mention here the ongoing restructuring exercise by our parent company. We are quite in the know that the whole idea is to ensure the fund competes favourably among its peers. We will not hesitate to put all out stakeholders in the know as events unfold,” he added.