Two companies declare dividends

Two publicly traded companies -- Standard Ceramic and S Alam Steel -- have recommended dividends to their shareholders for the financial year 2020-21. The dividends are same to that they declared for the previous financial year.

Meanwhile, a textile company -- Zaheen Spinning Limited – declared that it will not pay any dividend to its shareholders for the year due to poor earnings.

Standard Ceramic

The ceramic manufacturing company declared one per cent cash dividend for the year ending on June 30.

The Standard Ceramic will hold an annual general meeting (AGM) on December 29 to get the recommended dividend approved by the shareholders, it said in a news filing with the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) on Thursday.

The record date for the dividend payout was set for November 25, the filing mentioned.

The company bounced back strongly from the previous year’s Covid shock and made a profit in FY21. It reported earnings per share (EPS) of Tk 0.24 for FY21 while it was negative Tk 6.32 in the previous year.

The ceramic company attributed its good performance to increase in sales volume, decrease in costs of sold goods, and improvement in profitability.

At the same time, it reported net asset value (NAV) per share of Tk 9.72 and net operating cash flow per share (NOCFPS) of Tk 1.20 for the last year, against Tk 9.56 and Tk 0.56 respectively of the previous year’s same period.

The company said that its NOCFPS rose in FY21 as its collection against sales gained momentum in the year.

S Alam Cold Rolled Steels

The board of directors of S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Ltd has recommended a 10 per cent cash dividend to its shareholders for the year ending on June 30. It paid the same dividend to its shareholders in the previous year.

The publicly traded engineering company will hold an AGM at the Chittagong Club on January 15 for approval of the declared dividend, it said in a filing with the DSE on Thursday. The record date was set for November 25.

S Alam Steel also reported consolidated EPS of Tk 0.88, NAV per share of Tk 18.89 and NOCFPS negative Tk 21.75 for FY21, as against Tk 0.55, Tk 19.01 and Tk 9.19 respectively of the previous year. The company informed the DSE that its net profit increased owing to enhancement of revenue during the period.