JAKARTA: Cigarette producer PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk announced here the other day that it would pay Rp 10.35 trillion ( US$783.20 million ) in dividends, 99.99 percent of its profit.
Sampoerna recorded Rp 10.36 trillion of net profit in 2015.
Currently the company is owned by international tobacco producer Philip Morris through PT Philip Morris Indonesia, which holds 92.5 percent of the stock, while the remaining 7.5 percent is owned by the public.
“We are very pleased to be providing shareholders with a strong dividend payout and maximizing their returns,” president director Paul Janelle said during the firm’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.
The company is the leader in the Indonesian cigarette market, with a 34.1 percent market share. Cigarette sales increased 10.43 percent from Rp 80.53 trillion in 2014 to Rp 88.92 trillion in 2015.
The company also greatly reduced its debt to equity ratio ( DER ) from 1.1 in 2014 to 18.73 percent in 2015. The company paid external debt of Rp 2.83 trillion to third parties and external parties. This contributed to the decreasing total debt of 59.72 percent.
“Currently we do not have third party loans and do not intend to make any loans this year,” Janelle said.
Other factors that reduced the DER were shareholder equity, which increased by 2.37 times, from Rp 13.5 trillion in 2014 to Rp 32.02 trillion in 2015, due to a rights issue on Oct. 30, 2015, which resulted in Rp 269.12 trillion additional capital for the company.
The rights issue was due to an obligatory rule from the Indonesia Stock Exchange ( IDX ) for floating shares ( shares owned by the public ) of at least 7.5 percent of a company’s total shares. Before the rights issue, Sampoerna’s floating shares were 1.82 percent.
