SMPC to pay out record-high P30 billion dividends  

MANILA, Philippines — Integrated energy company Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) will   reward its shareholders this year with the company’s highest total dividend payout in history.

SMPC, in a stock exchange filing, said its board approved and declared P14.88 billion in special cash dividends.

The company said its shareholders on record as of Oct. 23,  are entitled to a special cash dividend of P3.50 per share.

Ex-dividend date will be on Oct. 20, while payment will be made on Nov. 8.

With the additional special cash dividend, SMPC’s total dividend payout to its shareholders for this year will be P29.75 billion, the highest in the company’s history.

The special cash dividends is on top of the P14.88 billion in regular (P1.80 per share) and special (P1.70 per share) cash dividends paid out by the company last April, which translated to P3.50 per share for eligible shareholders.

SMPC’s total annual dividend of P7 per share translates to a cash dividend yield of almost 20 percent based on its Oct. 6  closing price of P35.

SMPC is an integrated energy company with significant coal reserves and increasing power generation capacity.

As the largest domestic coal producer, the company supplies affordable fuel to power plants, cement factories and other industrial facilities across the country.

The company delivered its second best first half earnings this year at P19.2 billion despite being lower year-on-year.

Its net income from January to June was a 26-percent drop from last year’s P25.8 billion mainly due to high base effect and normalizing coal indices.

For this year, SMPC is targeting to export around 30 percent of its full-year sales target of 15 to 16 million metric tons.

The company plans to sell more of its coal locally moving forward.