Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), the nation’s second-largest car distributor, yesterday said shareholders had approved its dividend plan — the highest among listed automobile companies.
At the company’s annual general meeting in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), shareholders approved the plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$19.47 per common share based on last year’s net profit of NT$7.3 billion (US$243 million).
The payout ratio is 80.02 percent, based on the company’s earnings per share (EPS) of NT$24.33 last year. This year’s cash dividend is 46.39 percent higher than the NT$13.30 payout last year.
With the company’s share price closing at NT$375 yesterday, the cash dividend translates into a dividend yield of 5.26 percent.
Yulon Nissan distributes Nissan and Infiniti cars in Taiwan.
The company sold 20,575 cars in the first five months of the year, up 20.6 percent from the same period last year and taking a market share of 12.4 percent, the Chinese-language Apple Daily’s online news site yesterday quoted Yulon Nissan chairman Tsay Wen-rong (蔡文榮) as saying.
“We had a market share of 11.6 percent last year in Taiwan. With the 12.4 percent share we have now, I hope Yulon Nissan can meet the challenge of taking a market share of 13 percent by the end of this year,” Tsay told reporters after the shareholders’ meeting.
He said if the company could continue selling 1,000 units each of its Livina, Sentra and Tiida models per month in the upcoming quarters, along with the launches of new luxury models next quarter, it is very likely to meet its target market share of 13 percent this year.
In the first quarter, Yulon Nissan posted a net profit of NT$1.195 billion, down 6.69 percent from NT$1.28 billion a year ago, because of higher marketing expenses and an unfavorable foreign exchange rate, Tsay said.
“With the launch of new Livina models in March and the foreign exchange rate turning in our favor, I expect the company’s second-quarter profit would be better than the first quarter,” he said.
The company reported NT$15.08 billion in cumulative sales from January through last month, an increase of 24.28 percent year-on-year, according to the company’s stock exchange filing.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) forecast Yulon Nissan would see net profit increase by 0.6 percent to NT$7.34 billion this year, or NT$24.48 per share, while revenue would grow 16 percent to NT$36.51 billion from last year.
SinoPac retained its “buy” rating on the company, with a target price of NT$439.
Overall car sales in Taiwan rose 13.8 percent to 170,365 units during the first five months from a year ago.
Tsay said he was optimistic that total car sales for the whole year would approach 400,000 units, citing growing replacement demand amid improving economic conditions.
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