Odu’a Investment Company Limited has declared the sum of N788m as profit before tax for the financial year ended December 31, 2016.
This was disclosed at the 35th Annual General Meeting of the company which held yesterday.
The amount, according to the company, represents 32 per cent increase from the preceding year, when the company declared N597m as profit before tax.
The management and owner-states of the firm decided at the meeting that a sum of N275m be made available as dividend to the shareholders, while the states would receive N50m each. This represents 41.75 per cent surge over what they were paid in 2015.
The company said that it had paid cumulative gross dividend of N635.77m to its shareholders between 2014 and 2016.
While addressing journalists at the end of the five-hour meeting at the company’s corporate headquarters at the Cocoa House, Ibadan, the Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, who presided over the meeting, expressed the satisfaction of the states with the performance of Odu’a Investment Company despite the economic situation in the country.
He stated that the company would soon upgrade the facilities of the Ikeja Airport Hotel in Lagos State, as well as the Premier and Lafia hotels in Ibadan, Oyo State, stressing that the shareholders had approved investment in agriculture and agro-allied businesses to enhance food security and provide employment for youths in the South-West.
The Group Managing Director, Odu’a Investment Company, Adewale Raji, said that Lagos State would be a full member of the group after the consultant working on its admittance had completed its work.