Tigerair Taiwan Ltd’s (台灣虎航) board of directors yesterday approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3 per share after the company reported a NT$808 million (US$26.75 million) net profit for last year, down 17 percent from a year earlier.
The cash dividend, if approved by shareholders on June 30, suggests a dividend yield of 10.3 percent based on its stock’s closing share price of NT$28.97 yesterday in Taipei trading. That represents a payout ratio of 74 percent based on the airline’s earnings per share of NT$4.04, corporate data showed.
The total cash dividend distribution would be NT$600 million, the budget carrier subsidiary of China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said in a filing with the Taipei Exchange.
That would be Tigerair Taiwan’s first cash dividend distribution, as the company debuted its shares on the exchange’s Emerging Stock Board in December last year.
The nation’s two major airliners CAL and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have not yet announced a cash dividend.
Tigerair Taiwan’s whole-year revenue grew 8.41 percent from a year earlier to NT$9.51 billion, while its net profit declined 17 percent annually from NT$982 million, as it had to pay 20 percent in income tax last year after finally eliminating its accumulated losses, it said.
The carrier’s profit momentum is expected to slow this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as its operations from Taiwan to Northeast Asia have accounted for 79 percent of its revenue in recent years, an analyst said.
The company’s board of directors also approved to pay bonuses totaling NT$10.27 million to its employees, it said in another filing.
The board also appointed CAL director Chen Han-ming (陳漢銘) as its new chairman from yesterday after former chairman Chang Ho-jo (張鴻鐘) resigned on Thursday, it said.
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