Home ›› 10 Feb 2023 ›› Stock
British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh announced to give a total of 200 per cent cash dividends for the year 2022, the lowest since 2015.
The maker of Benson and many other cigarette brands is set to give the eight-year-low dividend payouts despite registering a 19 per cent YoY profit growth in 2020.
The listed multinational company reported Tk 1,787 crore in net profit in 2022 against 1,497 crore in 2021.
Its 2022 profit was up 37.47 per cent from the profit outlay of Tk 1,089 crore in 2020.
Riding on the solid business growth, BAT Bangladesh’s earnings per share (EPS) surged to Tk 33.1 in 2022 from Tk 27.72 the year before.
The country’s tobacco-industry market leader came up with the latest disclosure on Thursday, the same day when its parent company BAT forecasted a small global rise in 2023 earnings.
The board of directors of BAT Bangladesh on Wednesday declared a 100 per cent final cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2022.
The cigarettes maker declared a total 200 per cent cash dividend for the year, as the multinational already paid a 100 per cent interim cash dividend for the year.
Despite a solid year-on-year profit growth in 2022, the Dhaka Stock Exchange’s billion-dollar market-cap company’s investors will be receiving less-than-expected dividend payouts for the year.
It disbursed a 275 per cent cash dividend in 2021, 600 per cent in 2020, 400 per cent in 2019, 500 per cent in 2018, 600 per cent in 2017, 600 per cent in 2016, and 550 per cent in 2015 cash dividend.
The company is yet to publish its 2022 annual financial report.
According to its 2021 annual financial report, the cigarette maker remained focused on its basics of delivering high-quality tobacco products through a balanced portfolio approach to consumers— launching new products, and ensuring other supply and trade commitments.
Despite hikes in material prices due to supply and freight constraints as well as inflated costs on health and safety issues of employees, the MNC’s operating expenses increased by only about 15 per cent in 2021 due to high efficiency and other cost-saving measures.
The final approval of the dividend will come during its next annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled to be held on March 29 this year.
Moreover, the company, according to a DSE filing on Thursday, would hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on the same day to increase the number of directors on its board as per the BSEC Corporate Governance code.
The record date of both the AGM and EGM has been fixed as March 2.
The company’s net asset value per share stood at Tk 76.27 for the year ended December 2022 which was Tk 68.13 till December 2021.
Its net operating cash flow per share stood at Tk 50.04 for at the end of 2022.
BAT shares remained stuck at the floor price of Tk 518.7 on the DSE trading board since September 7 last year.
BAT Bangladesh manufactures a wide array of tobacco products, namely Benson & Hedges, John Player Gold Leaf, Capstan, Star, Royals, Lucky Strike, Derby, Pilot, Flag, and Hollywood.
It got listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 1977.
Headquartered in Dhaka, the company has cigarette factories in Dhaka and Savar.
Besides, it operates a green leaf threshing plant in Kushtia and a green leaf re-drying plant in Manikganj.
Meanwhile, British American Tobacco on Thursday forecasted a small global rise in 2023 earnings, as it also pledged to complete the sale of its Russian and Belarusian businesses this year, according to a Reuters report.
“The company is taking a ‘pragmatic’ approach to capital allocation given macroeconomic, regulation, and litigation uncertainties, as well as higher interest rates,” according to a JP Morgan note.
BAT is restructuring its management and operations, and last month said it would reduce the number of regions in its business from four to three and expand its management roles.
