President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), the nation’s largest convenience store operator, on Wednesday last week said that its board of directors had proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$8.8 per common share, the second-highest in the company’s history.
The proposed cash dividends for last year suggest a payout ratio of 89.61, based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$9.82.
With the company’s shares closing at NT$318.5 on Wednesday last week before a long weekend, the proposal suggests a dividend yield of 2.76 percent.
The company’s consolidated sales for last year expanded 10.74 percent annually to NT$244.89 billion (US$7.96 billion).
However, net profit fell 67.1 percent to NT$10.21 billion, compared with NT$31.02 billion in 2017, when the company was aided by a one-off gain from a share sale of President Starbucks Coffee Shanghai Corp (上海統一星巴克咖啡).
Operating profit increased to NT$12.83 billion, up 23.14 percent from NT$10.42 billion a year earlier, an indication that the company still saw solid profit growth in its core convenience store business.
As of the end of last year, the company operated 5,369 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan. PCSC also operates drugstore chain Cosmed (康是美), online bookstore Books.com Co Ltd (博客來), coffee chain President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克), home-delivery service President Transnet Corp (統一速達) and Uni-Ustyle Department Store (統一時代百貨), as well as overseas businesses, including Philippine Seven Corp and 7-Eleven franchises in Shanghai.
Thanks to cost control and efficiency efforts, gross margin improved 1.12 percentage points to 34.33 percent last year, while operating margin increased 0.53 percentage points to 5.24 percent, PCSC data showed.
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