More dividends ahead for D&L stockholders?
Food ingredient and plastic manufacturer D&L Industries Inc. is banking on its new manufacturing plant and expanding export market to drive growth and allow it to continue paying out dividends to stockholders.
This comes after D&L declared P1.52 billion in cash dividends, up by 2 percent versus last year, to shareholders of record as of June 18. This consists of a regular cash dividend of P0.164 per share and a special cash dividend of P0.049 per share.
“We do expect profitability to continue to increase,” D&L president and CEO Alvin Lao said during their annual stockholders meeting. “We’re quite comfortable in terms of the outlook of future years’ dividends.”
D&L recorded a 2-percent climb in its net income last year to P10 billion, with its manufacturing plant in Batangas province turning profitable earlier than expected.
The momentum spilled over to D&L’s first-quarter earnings, which ended higher by 10 percent to P681 million due to export growth.
Sales had soared by 62 percent to P14.3 billion. Export sales surged by 69 percent to P4.8 billion, defying global uncertainties.
“As part of efforts to ramp up production in our Batangas plant, we’re focusing on exports … we are visiting clients in other countries, attending trade shows and exhibitions to try and drum up business,” Lao said.
Currently, exports account for 34 percent of total sales. D&L aims to widen this to 50 percent in the medium-term.
