Gideon Muriuki, a multimillionaire banking executive in Kenya, is on track to receive a dividend of Ksh102.53 million ($882,400) from his stake in Nairobi-based financial services group, Co-operative Bank Group, by May 30, after the firm reported a 53-percent increase in profit at the end of 2021.
Muriuki, the CEO and managing director of Co-operative Bank Group, one of East Africa’s largest financial institutions with subsidiaries in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Uganda, owns a two-percent stake in the leading financial services group, totaling 102,528,400 shares.
Since being appointed managing director in 2001, the multimillionaire banking executive has overseen the bank’s transformation from a massive loss position of KSh2.3 billion ($19.8 million) in 2000 to a profit before tax of KSh22.6 billion ($194.5 million) in 2021.
Thanks to the group’s strong financial performance at the end of its recently completed fiscal year, Muriuki will receive $882,400 in dividends by the end of the month, which will be paid from the group’s retained earnings of Ksh86.2 billion ($741.9 million) at the end of 2021.
Recall that the Co-operative Bank’s board of directors recommended, subject to shareholder approval at the next annual general shareholders meeting on May 27, a dividend payment of Ksh1 (0.0086) per share, which translates to a total payout of Ksh5.9 billion ($50.8 million).
The proposed dividend was spurred by the impressive financial performance that Co-operative Bank delivered at the end of its 2021 financial year when its profit surged by 53 percent from Ksh10.81 billion ($93.04 million) to Ksh16.54 billion ($142.3 million)
This is the Kenyan lender’s best performance to date, and it aligns with the group’s strategic focus on long-term growth and transformation.
In line with the group’s strategic expansion plans, assets increased by eight percent from Ksh536.9 billion ($4.62 billion) in 2020 to Ksh579.8 billion ($4.99 billion), while the shareholder equity increased from Ksh90.7 billion ($780.6 million) to Ksh100.2 billion ($862.35 million).