Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (saccos) are in line for a Sh5.54 billion cheque as their holding company proposes to distribute nearly all the dividends earned from Co-operative Bank of Kenya.
Co-op Holdings Co-operative Society, which holds a 64.5 percent stake in Co-op Bank on behalf of saccos, is proposing to distribute 97.4 percent of the Sh5.68 billion it is set to receive as its share of dividends from the lender.
This will see the saccos’ earnings rise from Sh3.69 billion that was recorded in the previous year. Co-op Holdings will retain about Sh144 million after the latest payout.
The payout, set for on or before June 9, comes after Co-op Bank board recommended a 50 percent rise in dividends to Sh1.50 per share amounting to Sh8.8 billion, with saccos emerging the biggest winners.
Co-op Bank was listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in December 2008, and shares previously held by 3,805 co-operative societies and unions were ring-fenced under Co-op Holdings Co-operative Society.
Co-op Holdings has 3,799 individual co-operative society shareholders with a well-established over-the-counter trading of shares held by them. The top 10 Co-op Holdings shareholders account for 27.87 percent stake in the country's third-largest bank. Harambee Sacco has the biggest stake at 3.83 percent followed by H&M Cooperative with 3.31 percent stake
Kenya Police Sacco holds 3.17 percent stake while Afya and Masaku Teachers close the top five shareholding with stakes of 2.94 percent and 2.91 percent respectively.
Others in the top 10 highest beneficiaries from Co-op dividend will be Kipsigis (2.68), Co-operative Bank Co-op Savings (2.54), K-Unity Savings and Credit (2.38), Telepost Cooperative (2.28) and Nawiri Sacco (1.83).
Co-op Bank’s consistent dividend payout has enabled the thrift institutions to recoup and exceed their entire initial investment in the bank.
Co-op posted a 33.1 percent rise in net profit for the financial year ended December 2022 to Sh22 billion.
