Listed firms push Nicol profits up in 2020
What you need to know:
- The company announced yesterday that its net profit jumped to Sh1.5 billion in 2020 from a measly Sh41.3 million in 2019
Dar es Salaam. The net profit for the National Investment Company (Nicol) Plc jumped by over 36 times last year, thanks to improved profitability of companies it (Nicol) has invested in.
Nicol is a collective investment scheme that is listed at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).
The company announced yesterday that its net profit jumped to Sh1.5 billion in 2020 from a measly Sh41.3 million in 2019.
Nicol holds a 6.6 percent stake in NMB Bank Plc. It also holds stakes in TBL Plc, Vodacom, DSE Plc, Twiga Cement, CRDB Bank Plc and Simba Cement.
Both NMB Bank Plc and CRDB Bank Plc registered record profits during the year ended December 31, 2020.
NMB Bank Plc registered a record net profit of Sh205 billion in 2020, up from Sh142.335 billion in 2019. On the other hand, CRDB Bank Plc managed to break its 2015 record when its net profit jumped to Sh153 billion last year from Sh123 billion in 2019.
At the same time, Twiga Cement also saw its pretax profit rise 25 per cent year on year to Sh107. 42 billion in 2020 from Sh85. 87 billion that was registered in 2019.
Last year, Nicol’s chief financial officer Mr Erasto Ngamilaga said one of the company’s strategic plans was to tap into government securities which offer higher yields compared to normal equities.
He told The Citizen that nearly Sh1 billion was invested into government equities.
“We have bought bonds that are worth nearly Sh1 billion and we have a diversification plan to extend our investment portfolio on the long term securities to be up to Sh15 billion,” he said.
So far the action seems to have worked in their favor as the firm reported a Sh93.4 million increase in value for the government securities.
