TotalEnergies Shareholders To Forfeit 70,409 Unclaimed Dividends Worth N48 Million
By Sulaimon Salau
Shareholders who are yet to claim their dividends with the TotalEnergies may soon have to forfeit them in line with the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020).
Slye News gathered that about 8,114 shareholders are yet to claim their 70,409 dividends worth over N48.3 million and will have them forfeited after June 17, 2025.
Dividends are special debts due to and recoverable by shareholders within 12 years. Section 432(2) of CAMA2020 and Article 122 of the Company’s Article of Association stipulates that any dividend which remains unclaimed for 12 years stands forfeited.
The TotalEnergies 2024 Annual Report obtained by Slye News revealed that “dividends declared in 2012 and payable on 14 June, 2012 (dividends No51) which remained unclaimed have ceased to be recovered by 14 June, 2024. Also, dividends declared in 2012 and payable on 17 December, 2012 (dividend No52) which remained unclaimed have ceased to be recoverable by 17 December, 2024”.
The Register, CardinalStone Registrars Limited said: “Several dividends warrants and share certificates remain unclaimed , are yet to be presented or returned to the registrars for revalidation. We implore any shareholder affected by this to please write to the company registrars.
The shareholders, however, tasked TotalEnergies to find a way of locating the shareholders of the company whose unclaimed dividend has risen to about N48.3 million.
A shareholder activist, Nonah Awoh, said: The issue of unclaimed dividends is worrisome. The Company Secretary and the registrar should make a serious effort to ensure that shareholders get their unclaimed dividend. Because if they don’t get the money it would be forfeited to the government and this is not good. The shareholders would want to see a Nigerian managing director for the company as soon as possible since the entity has been in existence for100 years.”
