Redstar Express Plc Logo
By Goddy Egene
Shareholders of Redstar Express Plc have approved the N176.8 million recommended by the directors of the company for the year ended March 31, 2011.
The dividend payout, which represented 53 per cent of profit after tax, was approved by shareholders at the company’s 18th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos recently.
Speaking at the AGM, Chairman, Board of Director, Red Star Express, Alhaji Mohammed Koguna, said the courier company was able to weather the storm in the face of global economic challenges and recorded a profit of N4.2 billion in 2011; compared with N4.1 billion in 2010.
According to him, profit after tax grew by 85 per cent, moving from N180.5 million to N333.6 million. “It was based on the financial performance of the Red Star Express that the Board of Directors recommended a gross cash dividend of 30 kobo each for every 50 kobo share making a total dividend for the year amounting to N176.8 million,” Mohammed added.
He said that the prevailing global and local business challenges and post 2011 elections security threats in some sections of the country did not prevent Red Star from consolidating on its quality service delivery, adding that rather new strategies were developed to meet the challenges head-on.
Koguna disclosed that Red Star Express was fully on course to becoming a fully integrated Logistics one stop shop in the near future.
He said, “In a couple of months, we would be launching a number of new services into the market. These we believe to a large extent will expand our revenue base and signal in concrete terms our desire to expand our market share.”
The chairman noted that the sum of N1.668 million, being 0.5 per cent of profit after tax, was again appropriated to the Red Star Foundation as has been the tradition of the company since the foundation was created in 2004.
“It is expected that this will boost the activity of the foundation which dedicates efforts to giving scholarships to less privileged students from public secondary schools and the ‘I Care Project’ in the year 2011,” he said.
Red Star Express Plc has grown to become one of the top three courier companies in Nigeria in terms of revenue, network coverage and market share in the domestic and international market.
It enjoys a domestic strength of 169 offices in Nigeria, deliveries to more than 1,500 communities, over 1200 highly trained personnel and over 500 vehicles in its fleet. It prides itself of automatic proof of delivery and advanced technology with all operations done online and real-time.