The compensation package also offers an alternative of receiving shares instead of dividends to those who prefer increasing their existing holdings in the company to taking immediate cash rewards.
PZ Cussons Nigeria is ending a three-year lull in dividend payment to distribute N9.9 billion to shareholders as its retained earnings swung back to positive for the first time since taking a hit in 2023.
In a corporate disclosure on Monday, the local subsidiary of Manchester-based consumer goods producer PZ Cussons detailed a proposal to pay a N2.50 dividend per share for the year ended 31 May 2026, fixing the qualification date for 9 October and payment for the 30th of the same month.
The compensation package also offers an alternative of receiving shares instead of dividends to those who prefer increasing their existing holdings in the company to taking immediate cash rewards.
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Either way, both options require shareholders' assent at the next annual general meeting in October for the board to further the plan.
"The reference share price for the purpose of determining the number of shares due to qualifying shareholders who elect for the share option will be a ten-day trading average of the company's share price on the floor of" the NGX starting on 12 October, PZ Cussons said in the document.
The company last paid a dividend in 2022, having been largely incapacitated by a sweeping foreign exchange loss that tipped its accounts into a N90.3 billion net loss in 2024.
That year, PZ Cussons, like many manufacturers in Nigeria that rely on raw material imports for most of their operations, reported an FX loss of N157.9 billion after major devaluations of the naira, beginning from 2023, wore away over 70 per cent of its value, compared to the dollar.
Retained earnings, from which companies pay dividends, have been in the red since 2024, only turning positive in the year under review, thanks to a 349 per cent surge in profit to N45.2 billion.
Proceeds from asset disposal totalling N38.7 billion drove the profit rise.
Turnover in the review period scaled up by 22.5 per cent to N260.5 billion on account of improved sales from its home and personal care products division.
