JAKARTA - PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk (ARNA), a renowned ceramic manufacturer in Indonesia, readies its dividend distribution for the fiscal year 2023 of IDR 43 per share. This decision was made during the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGMS) of ARNA held last Thursday (28/3).

It is worth mentioning that, due to the weakening ceramic industry and market, ARNA reported significant downturn in its performance. Its revenue, that was cut 5.4% year-on-year (yoy) to IDR 2.45 trillion in 2023, further dragged its net profit down by up to 22.7% yoy to IDR 445.3 billion.

Thankfully, its net profit margin in 2023 only slipped 4% to 18%. “Amidst the weakening purchase power, where sales declined 7.8% [yoy], we managed to maintain the same [net profit] margin as in 2021,” said Rudy Sujanto, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Arwana in Public Expose 2023 last week (28/3).

Although its performance slowed down, ARNA decided to continue allocating 71% of its net profit as cash dividend for the fiscal year 2023, or equal to approximately IDR 316.16 billion.

With total shares at the end of February clocking at 7.34 billion, shareholders will be entitled to dividend of IDR 43 per share. “If we compared it to today’s (28/3) stock price, at around IDR 710 each, the dividend yield is set to exactly 6%,” added Sujanto.

ARNA seemed to focus more on increasing dividend yield annually instead of its dividend per share. For example, in the fiscal year 2022, ARNA allocated higher dividend of IDR 55 per share, with lower dividend yield of 5.53%. The trend was also seen in the fiscal year 2021, in which the dividend per share was set to IDR 45, but the yield only reached 4.97%. (ZH)