Sabeco plans to pay 15 percent cash dividend in September

HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) will pay every shareholder 1,500 VND (0.06 USD) per share, or a 15 percent cash dividend rate, to complete its 2018 dividend plan.

The company will finalise the list of beneficial shareholders on September 6 and payment will be made on September 27.

With more than 641.28 million shares listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE: SAB), Sabeco will have to pay 960 billion VND (42.24 million USD) to shareholders this time.

Sabeco shareholders approved the 15 percent cash dividend rate in April, raising the firm’s 2018 must-pay dividend rate to 50 percent from previous 35 percent.

In December and October 2018, Sabeco made two advanced cash dividend payments for shareholders, worth total 2.24 trillion VND.

In 2018, Sabeco earned 36 trillion VND worth of total revenue, up 5.1 percent year on year. Its post-tax profit fell 11 percent year on year to 4.4 trillion VND. The company recorded its undistributed post-tax profit had reached 7.47 trillion VND as of December 31, 2018.

In the first half of 2019, the brewery posted a 9 percent increase in total revenue, which was 18.4 trillion VND. The firm also saw its profit gain 16 percent year on year to 3.45 trillion VND in the first six months.

In 2019, Sabeco targets to achieve nearly 39 trillion VND in total revenue and 4.7 trillion VND  in net profit. The figures are respectively up 8.3 percent and 6.8 percent year on year.

In late 2017, Vietnam Beverage – the Vietnam-based unit of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (ThaiBev) – purchased 343.6 million Sabeco shares or 53.58 percent of the Vietnamese brewer’s charter capital for 110 trillion VND.

After ThaiBev completed its purchase of Sabeco shares, worries about the prospects of the Vietnamese brewer sent its shares down 40.5 percent from the record high of 329,460 VND (14.5 USD) per share on November 29, 2017.

Since then, Sabeco shares have gained 42 percent to end at 278,400 VND per share on August 23.

The growth of Sabeco shares shows investors have reacted well to the company’s performance, especially with ThaiBev topping the firm’s governance system, according to Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC).

ThaiBev has made significant changes in the structure of Sabeco and the restructuring was the reason for increased earnings in the first half of 2019.

Efforts have been made to win market shares in major local markets like Da Nang and HCM City, cut production and logistics expenses, and increase the firm’s total production capacity.

The company might continue to beat its 2019 full-year earnings targets, BVSC said.-VNS/VNA