Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) yesterday said its after-tax profit last year expanded nearly five times from a year ago amid recovering demand, especially from China.
The company, one of the four largest units of the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), said in a stock exchange filing that it made a profit of NT$29.44 billion (US$925.8 million), or NT$5.17 in earnings per share (EPS), last year.
This compares with a net profit of NT$6.1 billion, or EPS of NT$1.10, in 2008 — the lowest since 2001 when the company reported NT$4.61 billion in profit.
Last year’s net profit was also higher than the NT$28.61 billion forecast by Citigroup analyst Oscar Yee (余浩銘) in a client note on Feb. 24. Yee predicted the company would report a net profit of NT$31.53 billion this year, supported by demand from China and a better product mix, the note said.
FULL-YEAR FIGURE
Given that the company had earlier reported a profit of NT$21.2 billion in the first three quarters of last year, the full-year figure meant that earnings in the fourth quarter of last year reached NT$8.24 billion, compared with a loss of NT$21.85 billion a year earlier and a profit of NT$12.4 billion in the third quarter.
The Changhua City-based company said on Jan. 4 that revenue last year fell 12.04 percent to NT$219.73 billion, from NT$249.82 billion a year earlier. Fourth-quarter revenue totaled NT$60.2 billion, up 64.4 percent from a year earlier and 5 percent from the previous quarter, the company reported at the time.
The company’s board yesterday also approved a proposal to distribute an all-cash dividend of NT$4.50 per share, it said in a separate stock exchange filing.
This is higher than the NT$1.20 in dividends that it paid shareholders last year — NT$0.90 in cash dividends and 3 percent in stock dividends, but lower than an all-cash dividend of NT$7 paid in 2008.
Based on the company’s closing price of NT$75.20 in Taipei trading yesterday, the company’s proposed cash dividends of NT$4.50 translate into a dividend yield of 5.98 percent.
This is higher than the 5.6 percent forecast by Yee and the 4.55 percent that affiliate Formosa Petrochemical has proposed paying shareholders.
PLANNED PAYOUT
Nan Ya Plastics is scheduled to announce its planned dividend payout for this year after a board meeting on March 26 and Formosa Plastics on March 29.
Formosa Chemicals’ board also agreed yesterday to issue NT$10 billion in seven-year unsecured corporate bonds to repay debt and improve its financial structure.
The company will hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 18 to review the dividend payout and other business proposals, another filing said.
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