TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc has approved a total dividend payout of N13.58bn for the 2024 financial year, even as shareholders pressed for the issuance of bonus shares during the company’s 47th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos recently.

The dividend represents a 60 per cent increase from the N25 paid in the previous year, with shareholders receiving N40 per share for the year under review.

Despite expressing appreciation for the improved dividend, shareholders questioned the board on why bonus shares have not been issued since 2004, despite the company’s strong financial performance and consistent profitability.

Leader of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Sunny Nwosu, said, “We want to find out from this company why, since 2004, they have not paid any bonus to shareholders. You have done everything to make us happy, but you have refused to give us a bonus. We don’t know why.”

Another shareholder, Anthony Omoniyi, citing the company’s robust net earnings of N74.9bn, reiterated the demand, stating that bonus shares would make it easier for retail investors to increase their holdings, given the rising cost of shares in the open market.

In addition to calls for bonus shares, shareholders demanded a return of interim dividend payments, especially during festive periods, to support low-income investors.

Responding, the company’s chairman, Jean-Philippe Torres, said the company remains committed to rewarding shareholders while maintaining a balance between profit distribution and reinvestment.

“We allocate 50 per cent of the profit before tax to the shareholders, and the rest is to run the company and mainly to maintain profitability and continue to deliver value,” he said.

Torres noted that higher costs were partly due to strategic investments in asset maintenance and publicity, as well as inflation, forex volatility, and regulatory changes.

On the issue of unclaimed dividends, which currently total over N2.4bn, shareholders urged the company to collaborate with registrars to trace and return dividends to their rightful owners.

TotalEnergies recorded a 64 per cent increase in revenue to N1.04tn, while profit before tax rose by 140 per cent to N42.25bn. Comprehensive income for the year also grew by 113 per cent to N27.49bn.

The PUNCH reported that TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc projected a revenue of N191.61bn for the second quarter of 2025, according to its forecast of the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income recently filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.