Thailand
Cambodia: Royal Group’s PPSEZ to reward shareholders with more dividends
The publicly listed Royal Group Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (Royal Group PPSEZ) of the conglomerate Royal Group of Companies yesterday announced to pay cash dividend at the payout ratio of 40 percent from the operating profits or more than $765,000 to its shareholders in the public, according to a senior officer of the firm.
Royal Group PPSEZ always paid the dividend as per its former dividend policy of 20 percent but there were years that the company needed to reserve cash and thus it did not pay dividends such as the Covid-19 pandemic period, which means the company does not amend its dividend policy, but only withheld one year due to pandemic and uncertainty, according to the officer.
Fong Nee Wai, Chief Financial Officer of Royal Group PPSEZ, told Khmer Times yesterday that there was an exception to the 20 percent ratio in the financial year 2020 and the payment for the financial year 2021, which encourages the company to pay more than 20 percent to reward its shareholders.
“Our shareholders have been patient with us after we withheld for one year as we did not pay the dividend, and this year we declare even higher dividend… ever as compared to the last few years. However, during this period we have obtained shareholder approval to withhold cash and did not pay the dividend,” said Nee Wai.
He went on to add that the reward was 40 percent a year before 38 percent. “Last financial year we achieved a better result and hence decided to distribute more dividends to our shareholders in the public.” The total Dividend and Dividend per share of Khmer Riel that base on the exchange rate on the day of the BOD meeting which was on 11 November 2022.
The Royal Group PPSEZ announced to pay dividends of $0.0106508 per share from 6 to 14 December 2022. Shareholders who sell the shares on November 17, 2022 will still be entitled to get this dividend, but those who buy the shares on this date will not be entitled, according to the disclosure details released on Tuesday by Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX).
“There is a cut-off date as specified by the CSX and Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia (SERC) hence we have to follow the cut-off period, this will then be fair to those shareholders who have been holding our shares for many years/months since then, not to those just came in and buy our shares to get the dividend. This is a normal and standard practice in Capital Market worldwide,” said Nee Wai.
Royal Group has called off its plan to list its listed subsidiary Royal Group PPSEZ on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) to raise not less than $20 million mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic and some concerns.
Nee Wai added that Royal Group PPSEZ has considered other factors in addition to the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to the suspension of the secondary listing plan in SET, which is not related to technical issues of listing. Still, there are concerns shared among the members of the company’s BoD during their meeting held on 10 August 2022.
Hiroshi Uematsu, CEO of Royal Group PPSEZ, told Khmer Times that Royal Group plans to develop its major infrastructure and facilities at the Royal Group Poipet Special Economic Zone that will cover an area of 70.44 ha whereby about 41.46 ha are allocated to accommodate a total of seventy-one factory lots with sizes ranging from about 0.50 ha to 1.73 ha each.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501194376/royal-groups-ppsez-to-reward-shareholders-with-more-dividends/