BBN Report
Shareholders to ratify 8.25 fils semi-annual cash dividend
DUBAI/March 08-2021: The Securities & Commodities Authority (SCA), the capital market regulator, rejected the proposal by Islamic Arab Insurance Company (Salama) to distribute 5.25 fils per share special cash dividend to its shareholders.
Salama said its Board of Directors will meet on March 11, 2021 to consider (along with other agenda items) submitting to the shareholders at the general assembly, a proposal for the distribution of higher semi-annual cash dividends of 8.25 fils per share for the six-month period ending December 31 2020.
This is in place of the previous proposal considered by the Board of Directors on February 11, 2021 to distribute semi-annual dividends of 3 fils per share.
Special dividend
The idea of distributing special dividend of 5.25 fils per share had stemmed from the sale by the company of 4 million shares owned in the capital of SALAMA Cooperative Insurance Company, Saudi Arabia.
The Board of Directors had on February 17 said it planned to call the General Assembly to consider the distribution special dividend, subject to the SCA approval, which now stands turned down by the regulator.
Salama, the UAE’s largest and oldest Shari’ah compliant Takaful solutions provider, had earlier rolled out a new brand identity to mark its 40 years of success, celebrate the trust of its customers and highlight the company’s strategic future ambitions.
Jassim Alseddiqi, Chairman of SALAMA, said the company performed well despite the challenges of the global pandemic by continuing to provide customers with the high standards of service.
“We are focusing on the digitisation of our products and services to ensure we remain at the forefront of the Takaful insurance market,” Alseddiqi said.
New Life products
The company had recently introduced its new Individual Life product range comprising seven products, alongside the new UAE regulation 49 (also known as BOD-49), which came into effect on 15 October 2020.
“This regulation is expected to positively transform the Takaful market, and SALAMA is well placed to benefit from the potential for growth in demand given its strong, customer-centric proposition,” Salama said in a statement.
