Magyar Telekom, Hungary’s leading telecommunications group, has held its annual general meeting on Tuesday, where shareholders also voted on the size of dividend MTel should pay.
The AGM approved the distribution of HUF 26.1 billion worth of dividend from 2018 profits. The company pays HUF 25 dividend per share. As the company distributes the dividends for its own shares among the shareholders who are entitled for dividends, the actual DPS is HUF 25.17, according to Portfolio’s estimate.
Calculating with the current HUF 466 share price, this implies a dividend yield of nearly 5.4% which places MTel in the top echelon among companies listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE).
Of the HUF 26.1 bn dividend, HUF 15.5 bn is the share of the parent company, Deutsche Telekom, HUF 5.3 bn will be received by foreign institutions, HUF 1.1 bn by domestic institutions and HUF 2.5 bn by domestic private individuals.
The dividend will be paid from HUF 37.7 bn after-tax profit posted last year, the remaining HUF 11.6 bn of which will be allocated as retained earnings. The first day of dividend payment is 24 May. The record date of the dividend payment is 15 May.
Based on the BoD’s proposal, 24 May 2019 will be the first day of dividend disbursement and the record date of the dividend payment will be 15 May. The previous dividend policy that took into consideration the company’s indebtedness is no longer applied. Instead, management tries to give a dividend projection for the following year. The company now expects to pay HUF 27 DPS from 2019 profits.
MTel’s share price showed no reaction to the announcement.
