Jollibee grants 20¢ cash dividend

Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. declared a cash dividend of 20 centavos per share to stockholders, increasing its total pay-out this year to 35 centavos per share, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The latest cash dividend will be paid to shareholders of record as of Nov. 24 and paid on Dec. 8.

JFC’s total 35-centavo cash dividend for the entire year represents a 25-percent increase over the cash dividend given last year. Earlier in May, JFC declared a 15-centavo per share cash dividend.

JFC chief finance officer Ysmael Baysa said the significant increase in cash dividends "reflects the healthy cash flows of our business."

"The total cash dividends this year is the highest ever declared by JFC and this is remarkable since we are making one of our largest capital investments at the same time," he added.

JFC’s total capital expenditures for the first nine months of the year amounted to P1.4 billion, an increase of 74 percent from the P807 million spent in the same period last year.

The company expects to spend a total of about P1.7 billion this year, mainly on its new commissary in Canlubang, Laguna and the addition of new stores which will reach 80 by the end of the year.

"Our working capital level is quite healthy with accounts receivable at 15 days and inventory at 17 days of sales. The increase in cash dividends is quite fitting for the company’s 25th anniversary," Baysa said.

"The cash dividend improvement will likely improve the payout ratio. If we use the analysts’ earnings estimate for JFC in 2003 of P1.238 billion or P1.25 earnings per share, the payout ratio will increase from 26.24 percent in 2002 to 28.26 percent in 2003," Baysa further said.

Baysa said this rate is sustainable and the plowback rate or the rate retained for the business is sufficient to drive the firm’s future growth. "There are good investment opportunities for us, both in the domestic market and abroad and we see the company continuing to make sizeable investments in the years ahead," Baysa said.

JFC will create a new international holding company to directly manage its businesses in the United States. This is in line with the group’s continued commitment to its businesses in the US.

The JFC Group will open at least seven new stores in California and Hawaii in the next few months. This will bring the group’s total branch network in the US from 11 to 18 by the end of the year.

The Jollibee stores in the US are located mainly around the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles areas. Of the 11 stores currently in operation, eight are Jollibee restaurants and three are Tomi’s Teriyaki, a Japanese fastfood restaurant acquired by the JFC Group in 2001.

The JFC Group also includes Chowking (which serves Oriental food), Greenwich (one the leading players in the pizza-pasta market) and Delifrance (a significant player in the French bakery-café segment).