Nigeria’s biggest quoted oil firm to pay shareholders $14.7 million quarterly dividend

Seplat Energy PLC will pay stockholders a total sum of $14.7 million (at USD2.5 cents per share) in cash compensation for the three months to June as the oil driller turned the tables to post a N14.1 billion in profit in the first half of this year, compared to a N37.782 billion loss in the same period of last year.

The company, which pays dividends four times in a year at quarterly intervals, paid the same sum for January to March, and could, by reason of global oil recovery and easing in the Covid-19’s economic impact, surpass the $58 million it paid last year to investors in Lagos and London, where its shares are dual-listed.

With appropriate withholding tax to be factored into it, the cash will go to “shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at the close of business on 12th August 2021,” Seplat said Thursday in a note unveiling the dividend plan, seen by Premium Times.

“Shareholders holding their shares on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) without a valid Nigerian Certificate for Capital Importation (“CCI”) will be paid their dividend in Naira as the default currency,” it added.

Those holding theirs on the NGX and having a valid CCI will get their dividends in U.S. dollars, while shareholders holding shares via depository interests on the London Stock Exchange will get paid in U.S. dollars.

The market value of Seplat, Nigeria’s biggest quoted oil company by market capitalisation, was N453.1 billion as of Wednesday.