Transcorp Hotels Plc is to invest part of its N14. 75 billion on the expansion of Transcorp Hilton Abuja facility and the on-going construction of Transcorp Hilton.
The Chairman of the company, Mr. Emmanuel Nnorom, disclosed this at its 2024 Annual General Meeting, in Abuja, yesterday.
The Chairman was responding to a journalist’s question on what the company planned to do with the balance of the N14. 86 billion profit after paying out a total dividend of N7 .57 billion to shareholders.
He said, “I have mentioned the Transcorp Hotel in Lagos. Also, even in Abuja here, we are hoping to add some more rooms to the hotel.
“And that includes weekends, which is very high. So we want to do more, because the hotel is hoping to host a lot of events, especially some major events by June, which have never been hosted by Nigeria. I am sure you’re going to read about that.
“We have just mentioned our 5,000-capacity events centre, the biggest in the country, that is already open and many more events are coming through that.
All of that will generate income, not only for the rent of the place, but also in food and beverages, as well as, accommodation for the hotel.”
On shareholders’ concerns about the level of dividend, Mr. Nnorom said, “The dividend we paid was quite good. This year, for 2024, we paid an interim dividend of 10 Kobo and today we’ve approved 64 kobo per share, making it 74 Kobo.
“When you compare that with 2023, when we paid only 20 kobo per share to shareholders, that’s a 270% increase. And so we’ll continue to sustain that.
One thing with the group, whether Transcorp Hotel, Transcorp Power, or Transcorp PLC, is that we are constantly returning dividends to shareholders, because they are the owners of the company. There will be improvement, I can assure you.”
Also speaking the Managing Director of Transcorp Hotels Plc, Uzoamaka Oshogwe promised to sustain the growth trajectory and raise the bar in guests’ experience in the hotels.
She said that her team would be innovative, deploy technology to make check-in seamless and to provide personalised guest experience.
Her words, “I think my first task is to ensure I sustain the growth already achieved. That is number one. And you know you can’t satisfy your guests enough so I must continue to build on the exceptional guest experience because in the middle of this business, the most important thing is our guest after our staff.
“We are going to, through innovation, give them the type of experience that they would not have experienced anywhere else and that is using technology because there’s nothing as discouraging as the guests coming in and it is taking so long to check in.
So we are going to ensure that their check-in process is seamless and then when they get into their rooms, they will feel like they are the only guest in the hotel. That is giving them a guest experience that is personalised.
“There is nothing as important as going somewhere and you feel that you are the only guest because the attention given to you is unique. So that is something we’re going to build on.
“I am not saying we don’t have it now, like I said I am going to be building on what has already been established. Getting to the top might be easy but staying there is even tougher.
“So we have to be very innovative in the way we do things, even as little as the food we eat. So I have to continue to keep thinking outside the box to ensure that the experience is different.
“You know when a guest goes to a hotel and thinks this service was exceptional and then they come back and they are thinking oh my God it’s even more exceptional.
“That’s the task myself and my team have to face and ensure that we conquer.”
