Chunghwa approves cash dividend

Chungwha Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's biggest telecom operator, announced yesterday that its board had approved a cash dividend of NT$3.58 per share based on last year's earnings of NT$44.9 billion (US$1.35 billion).

Last year's dividend was NT$4.3 per share.

STOCK DIVIDEND

The company also said it plans a 10 percent stock dividend per share.

The board yesterday approved a proposal to pay out NT$0.909 per common share to the company's shareholders by canceling 9 percent of outstanding shares to boost return on equity.

After the capital reduction, Chunghwa Telecom will have 967 million outstanding shares.

SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING

The two proposals will be discussed in the annual shareholders' meeting later this year.

Separately, the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday called on the nation's telecommunications companies to reduce their text messaging rates, which the group said are three to five times higher than those of neighboring countries.

PRICES

Foundation chairman Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) said that the six major telecommunications companies in Taiwan charged users an average fee of NT$2.13 for every text message sent within the same network, compared with China's NT$0.4 and Hong Kong's NT$0.68.

For text messages sent outside of their networks, the six firms charge users NT$2.53 per message on average, which is also higher than China's NT$0.6 and Japan's NT$1.4, Cheng said.

Cheng urged the National Communications Commission to pay attention to the issue.

He said the commission should work to have local telecommunications companies reduce their text messaging rates to NT$1.3 per message for intra-network service and NT$1.7 per message for inter-network service -- the most affordable rates currently available through a domestic telecommunication company.