Listed investment holding company D&L Industries Inc. declared Monday a regular cash dividend of P0.161 per share, along with a special cash dividend of P0.048 per share, for shareholders on record as of June 19.
Shares of D&L, holding company for a group of companies with interests in the customization, development and manufacturing of food ingredients, colorants, additives, engineered polymers, aerosol products, oleochemicals, resins and powder coating, will trade minus the cash dividends on June 18.
The regular and special cash dividends will be paid on July 3. For the fourth consecutive year, D&L declares special dividends totaling 15 percent of prior year’s net income, maintaining a 65 percent payout ratio.
The company earlier committed to pay as regular cash dividend 50 percent of its prior year’s net income. Despite lower earnings in 2023, resulting in a reduced total dividend per share of P0.209 compared to last year’s P0.3, the yield stands at 3.3 percent based on the closing price of P6.28 a share on May 31.
In 2023, net income was P2.3 billion, down 31 percent year-on-year, mainly due to higher expenses at the Batangas plant and last year’s high inflation. However, first quarter earnings showed a 4 percent growth to P618 million, driven by improving operations at the Batangas plant.
By March 2024, D&L’s subsidiaries at the Batangas facility surpassed their first year export commitment by 230 percent, allowing its management to maintain an earnings guidance of at least a double-digit growth this year.Including this year’s dividends, the company has returned P16.8 billion to shareholders since its initial public offering in 2012. It also paid a 100 percent stock dividend in September 2015, doubling the number of shares held by stockholders.
