Vietnam National Gas Corporation – Joint Stock Company (PV GAS, Stock code: GAS) has recently announced its Board of Management’s resolution on the approval of cash dividend payout for the year 2023.
According to the resolution, PV GAS will distribute a dividend of 60% for 2023, meaning that shareholders will receive VND 6,000 per share. With nearly 2.3 billion shares currently in circulation, the company is estimated to pay out over VND 13,780 billion in dividends. The majority of this amount (over VND 13,200 billion) will go to the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN), the parent company of GAS, which currently holds 95.76% of the company’s charter capital.
The dividend payout period is scheduled from October 14 to November 29, 2024.
In fact, the 60% dividend rate is a record high for GAS, significantly higher than the previous years’ rates of around 30-35%. This rate is also three times higher than the rate proposed at the 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and was approved at the 2024 Annual General Meeting.
At the Annual General Meeting, Chairman of the Board of Management, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, attributed the record-high dividend to the company’s strong business performance in 2023. Despite a slight decline from the previous year, GAS still recorded a net profit of nearly VND 11,800 billion in 2023.
Mr. Binh also emphasized that GAS is a large enterprise operating in the field of national energy security, and therefore, the dividend only partially reflects the company’s performance. All decisions regarding dividend distribution have been carefully considered, taking into account both the production plan and capital usage plan of GAS for the upcoming period.
In addition to the high dividend payout, the Board of Management of GAS also approved the implementation of the plan to issue shares to increase charter capital from PV GAS’s own capital source in 2024, which was previously approved by the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in 2024.
Specifically, GAS plans to issue over 45.9 million shares, equivalent to 2% of the current outstanding shares.
The entitlement ratio is 50:01 (On the record date, for every 1 share held by a shareholder, they will receive 1 right, and for every 50 rights, they will receive 1 new share).
The capital source for the issuance will come from the Investment Development Fund as of December 31, 2023, according to the audited separate financial statements for 2023 of GAS.
The issuance method will be a bonus issue, with the new shares being distributed to existing shareholders in proportion to their existing holdings.
The issuance is expected to take place in the third or fourth quarter of 2024, after obtaining the necessary approvals from the State Securities Commission.
At a working session on July 11 with Mr. Le Ngoc Son, General Director of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), the management of PV GAS reported that the company’s revenue for the first six months of the year reached 111% of the management plan, a 12% increase compared to the same period last year, ranking second within the Group. Profit before tax reached 129% of the management plan for the first six months and ranked third within the Group.
On the stock market, as of the morning session of July 15, GAS shares are trading at VND 78,000 per share.
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