The board of Shoprite Holdings Group has declared a final dividend of 163 cents which is over 40% lower than what was declared in 2018, according to a statement released by the company.
“The board has declared a final dividend of 163 cents (2018: 279 cents) per ordinary share, payable to Shareholders on Monday, 9 September 2019”, read a statement issued by Pieter Engelbrecht, CEO of the Shoprite Holdings group in South Africa on 20th August 2019.
The dual listed company reported that its core operations, Supermarkets RSA’s sales grew by 4.9%. “We’ve continued with our growth strategy to capture a larger share of the premium food segment through the ongoing Checkers repositioning”, further stated the CEO.
The dividend has been declared out of income reserves. Income reserves, a form of Retained Earnings, are a part of company’s net income which is left after paying out dividends to shareholders. This inward approach brings the total dividend for the year to 319 cents (2018: 484 cents) per ordinary share.
Despite a constrained economy and inventory shortages, the CEO admits it was a tough year. “Notwithstanding the much improved recent performance in our core Supermarkets RSA division, which generates 74.9% of our sales and grew second half sales by 7.4%, it was a testing year”.