Nicol’s half-year net profit up 68 percent

Dar es Salaam. The half-year net profit for the Tanzania National Investment Company (Nicol) - a collective investment scheme that is listed at the local equity market - rose by 68 percent, the company has announced.

The rise in profit is attributed to an increase in dividend income from equity investments and interest income from government bonds.

Nicol - whose stock currently fetches Sh250 at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) - said the rise in profit was also the result of a cut in operational costs, and diversification of its investments.

In a statement to the DSE, Nicol stated that profit for the half-year that ended on June 30, 2021 was Sh3.82 billion, rising from the Sh2.27 billion recorded in the first-half of 2020.

Income rose by 39 percent, to Sh4.57 billion, from Sh3.29 billion last year.

Out of the money, Sh4.31 billion (which is equivalent to 94 percent) was a gain from equities dividends from the companies in which Nicol has stakes.

Nicol holds stakes in companies such as NMB Bank Plc, TBL Plc, Vodacom Tanzania, Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), Twiga Cement, CRDB Bank Plc and Simba Cement.

Moreover, the company received Sh258.44 million as interest from government bonds investments.

Nicol revealed that, for the half-year to June 30, 2021, the company had investments valued at Sh7.6 billion in the long-term government securities which have attractive returns.

Plans are to extend their investment funds - and reach Sh15 billion at the end of this year (2021).

“This diversification initiative is expected to enhance the company’s income, make it possible to declare higher annual dividend payments to the shareholders, as well as improve the company’s assets value,” the company statement reads in part.

In the first half of June 2020, the company did not have any investment in government bonds.