Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), one of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturing service providers, yesterday decided to raise its cash dividend for last year to NT$1.10 per share.
The company’s shareholders approved a special proposal to increase the cash dividend by NT$0.30 a share for last year during the annual general meeting yesterday, Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ting (丁祈安) said by telephone.
That would raise the cash dividend yield from 0.89 percent to 1.23 percent, based on Hon Hai’s closing price of NT$89.50 yesterday.
Total cash dividend distribution would reach NT$8.14 billion (US$241 million), up 37.5 percent from the original NT$5.92 billion.
On March 6, the board gave the go-ahead to management’s plan to pay out a cash dividend of NT$0.80 per share for last year — down from the NT$3 it paid out based on 2007 earnings — after posting a 29 percent plunge in net income last year.
The electronics maker kept its stock dividend unchanged at 15 percent based on last year’s earnings, same as in 2007.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said gross margin could trend up in the medium to long-term as operating efficiency improved.
Gross margin contracted to 8.8 percent last year from 9.8 percent in 2007, according to a financial statement released last month.
Hon Hai posted net income of NT$55.1 billion last year, down 29 percent from NT$77.7 billion in 2007, the financial statement showed.
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