UEM Edgenta declares bumper dividend

UEM Edgenta says it declared a special dividend of 18 sen and a 2nd interim dividend of 5 sen.

Aggregated with earlier interim dividend declared (Aug ’17), this would bring the payout to 31 sen for FY17.

This amount represents UEM Edgenta’s highest dividend payout, following the disposal of OIC.

According to a media release today, the special dividends will be paid in April and May 2018 respectively.

“This is in line with our commitment to return excess cash from the disposal of OIC.

“We will continue this commitment of rewarding our shareholders”, said Datuk Azmir Merican, MD/CEO of UEM Edgenta.

Full-year performance
The company declared a revenue of RM2.1 billion for FY17, or 34.3% higher than FY16’s revenue of RM1.6 billion.

Healthcare Services and Infra Services Divisions continue to be the largest revenue drivers, contributing 43.0% and 40.7% of full-year revenue.

Profit before tax (PBT) for FY17 was RM172.9 million, which was marginally lower than last year’s RM181.5 million.

The Company recorded a full-year profit after tax (PAT) of RM434.8 million. This represents a 9.3x increase against FY16’s PAT of RM46.6 million.

This was due to a one-off gain on the disposal of the entire 61.2% equity in OIC worth RM274.9 million.

PAT from continuing operations following the disposal of OIC stood at RM125.1 million for FY17.

As at end-2017, UEM Edgenta’s gross gearing was 0.35x and the Company is in a net cash positive position of RM143.7 million.