Stock investors pocket few dividends

ABDUEL ELINAZA

SOME stock investors are expecting to pocket few dividends as most listed companies report dwindling of profit last year. The most affected are investors in banking, service and manufacturing sectors.

The industries have been upset by poor economic environment. The last year profitability affects also earning per share as most listed firms earnings are increasing at decreasing pace. CRDB Bank has proposed dividend of 5/- half from the amount paid in 2016 while earning per share dropped by almost the same level to 11/80 from 24/40.

The dividend and EPS impact caused by declining of profit-after-tax by 48 per cent to 36.21bn/- from 69.58bn/- posted the year before. “Profit decline was mainly attributed to aggressive provisioning of impairment reported by the Managing Director,” Orbit Securities said in weekly report.

NMB Bank Plc which released their 2017 audited financials a week earlier did not announce dividend, for comparison purpose. Also NMB was yet to declare dividend but earnings per share declined by 39 per cent to 191/- from 312/- recorded the year before.

The EPS down movement trend was also the results of profit dwindling. Swissport dividend declared for 2017 was 165/75 almost half in comparison with 338/53 in previous year. Last year, the ground handlers issued no interim dividend. Swissport, from landing to take-off, registered 22 per cent decline of profit last year to 11.93bn/- from 15.23bn/- posted on 2016 due to decrease in the number of flights handled.

On manufacturing sector, TCC profit declined by 34 per cent from 68.7bn/- in 2016 to 45.4bn/- last year. The largest cigarette producer in the country attributed the profit decline to weak export performance and increased operating expenses.

The slowing down profit left the directors to declare an interim ordinary gross dividend of 200/- per share, which was paid last November compared to 300/- of previous year. Tanga Cement, Simba, dividend dropped to 25/- in last year first half against 55/- in similar period.

The Tanga based cement producer EPS nosedive to negative 240/- from 182/-. However, some companies set to announce better dividends such as DSE plc. The firm, self-listed on the bourse, EPS is on increasing spree since fourth quarter of 2016.

Though they are yet to announce full dividend, DSE EPS rose from 36/- in Q4, 2106 to 47/- in Q3 last year to 53/- in Q4 last year. The important aspect was that up and down swinging of dividend amounts does not paint a picture that listed companies are in poor state rather normal business circles.