By John Okoh, Lagos
Oluseun Ajayi, (middle) MD, (L) and Secretary
The Chairman of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc (STI), Oluseun Ajayi has said the company plans to use the additional capital they are sourcing to deepen their retail business across the country. Ajayi who disclosed this to shareholders at the company 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos explained that the issue of Daewoo loan will soon be resolved in the next two years.
He pointed out the company has put in place strategies to clear its negative earnings by the first quarter of 2018 that will enable it to pay dividend.
Ajax traced the bad debt in the company’s financial statement to the bad economic downturn it faced last year, explaining further that some of the companies debtors have closed down, which rules out recovery of the debt, while those still in operations are been engaged.
Some of the key highlight of day’s meeting are the approval by shareholders for the board of directors to increase their authorized share capital from N5,500,000,000 to N7,500,000,000 by the creation of 4,000,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each ranking in all respects with the existing ordinary shares of the company.
The directors also received approval from shareholders to raise additional equity capital for the company up to the maximum limit of the authorized share capital. Subject to the approval of relevant regulatory authorities, this will be executed, whether by way of special placement or public offer without a preferential allotment or right issue or a combination of any of them, either locally or internationally and upon such terms and conditions as the directors may deem fit in the interest of the company.
It was also agreed by shareholders that in the event of over subscription of the offer / issue, that the board of directors can capitalized the excess money and allot additional shares to the extent that can be accommodated by the company’s unissued share capital.
Ajayi assured shareholders that resources will be continually deployed in line with the company’s strategic master plan to achieve greater successes and take its frontal position in the years ahead. He said, “We are currently in the process of initiating another five years strategic direction that will take the company to the next phase of our growth from 2018 to 2022. Technology, no doubt will form the pivotal thrust of this process in ensuring that we remain competitive and relevant in the insurance market space in many years to come”.
