Nico Holdings outlines hotel project benefits

Multidisciplinary conglomerate Nico Holdings plc has outlined its growth strategy for subsidiary companies that are pinned on the multi-billion kwacha hotel project in Lilongwe.

The hotel, being constructed at the Lilongwe Golf Club, is an 182-bed facility which Nico Holdings plc managing director Vizenge Kumwenda hailed as having vast potential to boost tourism and benefit the firm’s subsidiaries.

Speaking during a stakeholders engagement in Lilongwe on Tuesday, he said Nico Holdings plc subsidiaries such as NBS Bank plc, Nico General Insurance and Nico Life Insurance, are expected to reap the benefits from the project.

Said Kumwenda: “The hotel business itself is business for us and if it makes profits, the group will be benefiting. The bank will be able to provide the banking services to the people employed there and to the hotel as an institution.

“The bank will also be able to buy foreign exchange from the hotel. Our insurance firms will also be selling insurance to people employed there and insuring the assets of the hotel.”

He said once complete, the hotel will also create jobs and markets for farmers of various agriculture produce.

Kumwenda further said the Nico Holdings plc financial trajectory was good in 2023 despite a rough economic terrain sandwiched between global economic slowdowns following the Covid-19 pandemic aftereffects, a 44 percent kwacha devaluation in November 2023 and an inflation upsurge.

“The performance was good. As a reflection that our performance was good, our share price increased from K60 per share to K150 per share. That is an indication that the market was happy with our performance,” he said.

In an interview, Minority Shareholders Association of Listed Companies representative Purity Chitalo said he was impressed with Nico Holdings’ growth strategy, adding that the shareholders will benefit a great deal.

Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE)-listed Nico Holdings plc was established in 1971 as a short-term insurance company and has since expanded to a financial services group operating in Malawi and Zambia, with presence in Mozambique and Uganda through its associate company, Sanlam.

Nico Holdings plc has interests in general insurance, life insurance, pension administration, banking, asset management, corporate finance, property solutions and information technology.

Then trading as National Insurance Company (Nico), Nico Holdings plc was the first firm to list on the MSE in 1996 and has two listed subsidiaries NBS Bank plc listed in 2007 and Icon Properties plc listed in 2019.