The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has acquired 2.44% stake in Equity Group from Helios EB in a bid to continue providing a high return to members. The transaction which was valued at Shs145billion was approved by the Capital Markets Authority of Uganda, Capital Markets Authority of Kenya, and was undertaken in line with the Capital Markets Act.
While addressing the guests at the dinner, NSSF Managing Director, Mr. Richard Byarugaba, said that the acquisition is in line with the Fund’s aggressive yet, prudent investment approach that guarantees a competitive return to its members.
“We specifically selected Equity Group, because Equity Group is a fast growing financial institution within Africa and has registered exceptional performance over time. Since 2000 the Group’s pretax profit has grown at an annual average of 65%.
Speaking during the partnership celebration, Equity Group Holdings CEO & Managing Director Dr. James Mwangi expressed optimism that the Group’s performance will remain positive over the year.
According to the financial year results of the first quarter 2015, Equity Group Holdings, recorded a 13% increase in Profit before Tax. Driven by a rich portfolio of diversified investments, Equity’s total assets grew to KShs 372.5 billion up from KShs 295.3 billion representing a 26% growth year on year.
The Group also has a proven track record of value creation for its investors and efficiency in utilization of its assets registering Returns on Equity (ROE) and Return on Assets (ROA) of 27.6% and 4.8% respectively.
Recently, NSSF received a cheque of UGX 4,518,594,035/- from the power distributor Umeme Limited as gross dividend payment for its 231,722,771 shareholding in the company. NSSF is the third largest institutional investor in the utility distribution company, after purchasing an additional 100million shares in the company last year, which increased its stake to 14.27%.
“Such dividend earnings underpin the Fund’s overall aggressive but prudent investment strategy that has led to revenue growth of more 200% and payment of a return above 10 year average inflation to members, over the last 3 years,” Byarugaba said.