Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產), which distributes Nissan and Infiniti vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday said its board has approved a cash dividend of NT$22 per common share based on last year’s earnings, which were much higher than the previous year’s due to the optimistic sentiment in the local market.
The proposed dividend, if approved by shareholders next month, would be 76 percent higher than last year’s NT$12.5 per common share.
“We hope shareholders will benefit from Yulon Nissan’s improved profitability last year,” company president Leman Lee (李振成) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Yulon Nissan posted earnings of NT$4.63 billion (US$153.3 million) for last year, a 11.3 percent increase from the previous year, which the company attributed to robust demand.
Earnings per share were NT$15.44 last year, compared with NT$13.89 a year earlier, company data showed.
With Yulon Nissan’s stock closing at NT$253 yesterday, its proposed cash dividend of NT$22 translates into a dividend yield of nearly 8.7 percent, better than bank deposit rates.
Lee gave an optimistic outlook for the rest of this year, citing better-than-expected demand for the company’s new models and an appreciating New Taiwan dollar against the Japanese yen.
“The company might also take advantage of the strong NT dollar, which represents higher purchasing power for Taiwanese customers,” he said.
The NT dollar yesterday gained for the second straight day against the greenback, rising NT$0.014 to close at NT$30.201, central bank data showed.
The NT dollar has risen 6.44 percent against the US dollar so far this year.
Last month, new car sales in the nation fell 10.6 percent monthly and 2.7 percent annually to 34,024 units, according to local dealers.
Bucking the downward trend, Yulon Nissan last month saw its sales rise 11.9 percent month-on-month to 3,819 units, with an 11.2 percent market share.
In the first quarter of the year, the company’s net profit soared 32 percent to NT$1.44 billion from NT$1.09 billion a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$4.81.
Yulon Nissan attributed the results to better cost control and increasing sales in China.
Revenue in the first quarter rose 3.8 percent from NT$9.49 billion a year earlier to NT$9.85 billion, with gross margin increasing from 15.2 percent to 18.19 percent, company data showed.
Yulon Nissan, the third-largest car distributor in the nation after Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and China Motor Corp (中華汽車), expects to sell 44,900 vehicles in Taiwan this year, slightly higher than last year’s 44,700 units.
Sales at its Chinese subsidiary, Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co (東風日產), are expected to reach 1.2 million units this year, from 1.14 million units last year, the company said.
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