Board Recommends Dividend Of 310%
Kolkata
ITC Ltd., the cynosure of investors' eyes, is set to go for a stock split and declare a bonus issue.
ITC's board of directors, which met here on Friday, recommended a whopping dividend of 310% (Rs 31 per ordinary share of Rs10 each) as the company posted yet another year (2004-05) of stellar performance with a 37% growth in net profit at Rs.2191 crore. In 2003-04, the company paid a 200% dividend (Rs 20 per share). The pre-tax profit of the company surged by 15.3% to Rs 2673 crore.
ITC also plans to enhance its authorised share capital. In a communique to the bourses, it said the board will meet on June 17 to formalise the proposals for a stock split, a bonus issue and increase of the share capital.
The total cash outflow to honour the dividend commitment will be around Rs 881 crore.
Driven by topline growth across all businesses, the tobacco major scaled a gross turnover of Rs 13,350 crore marking a growth of 13%. While cigarette sales grew by 8.4% in 2004-05, the non-cigarette segments went up by 29.5% primarily on account of a strong performance in the group's hotel business.
Net income during 2004-05 stood at Rs 7875.2 crore, up from Rs 6695.3 crore recorded in the previous fiscal.
In the fourth quarter of last fiscal, ITC booked a net profit of Rs 771.7 crore compared to a profit of Rs 387 crore during the same period in the previous fiscal. The total income of the company during the period went up from Rs 1938.1 crore to Rs 2236.4 crore.
The segment revenue break-up shows that the FMCG sector, including cigarettes, was the prime contributor to the kitty with a revenue generation of Rs 10,565 crore.
The crossing of the Rs 10,000 crore milestone was driven by a domestic volume growth of 6.5% during the year.
The hotels, agri business and paperboards, paper and packaging divisions contributed Rs 577 crore, Rs 1780 crore and Rs 1565 crore respectively. The revenue generated out of hotel business represented a growth of 124%
The company said that over the last five years, the net turnover of the non-cigarette businesses has tripled to touch Rs 3197 crore in 2004-05.
Consequently, its share in net sales increased from 25% in 1999-00 to 42% in 2004-05.