Century Pacific announces cash dividends

MANILA, Philippines - The Board of Century Pacific Food, Inc., the country’s largest canned food company, yesterday approved 10 centavo per share regular cash dividend and a 10 centavos per share special cash dividend to all stockholders of record as of July 15.

The total of 20 centavo per share, representing 24 percent of the company’s 2015 net income, is set to be paid out on Aug. 10.

The cash dividend is equivalent to a one percent dividend yield, based on a P21.55 closing price, adding to the stock’s more than 30 percent return to shareholders since the start of 2016.

This is the second time the company opted to declare a special cash dividend, following robust sales and net income growth during the previous year.

In 2015, Century Pacific saw consolidated revenues and net income expand by 14 percent and 21 percent respectively. The good performance was on the back of strong volume growth across all branded segments, as well as declines in input prices that led to an improvement in margins.  For the first quarter of 2016, the company continued to exhibit similar trends, growing revenues by 22 percent and net income by 45 percent, while maintaining a superior return on equity of 23 percent.

Just last month, Century Pacific also announced a 50 percent stock dividend totalling P1.18 billion. Subject to shareholder approval on June 30, qualified investors will be entitled to half a share for every one share held, on top of the cash dividends that they will receive.