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Multipolar, Temasek enjoy lower dividends from Matahari
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Indonesian retail company Matahari has decided to give almost all of its profits as dividends to its two major shareholders, Lippo Group’s Multipolar and Singapore-based Temasek. (www.shutterstock.com/-)
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xperiencing a 67 percent plunge in its 2015 profit, Matahari Putra Prima (MPP) has decided to give almost all of its profits as dividends to Lippo Group’s Multipolar and Singapore based Temasek, its major shareholders.
Corporate secretary Danny Kojongian said Rp 177.5 billion (US$13.5 million) or 96.98 percent of its net income was to be distributed as dividends, leaving the remainder Rp 3.5 billion as retained earnings.
"This is our commitment to the shareholder. In the past, the dividend [ratio] was never this big. Last year the dividend payout ratio was just 30 percent," he told thejakartapost.com in Jakarta on Wednesday.
However, in terms of value, the dividend that distributed this year is actually lower. Last year, the company distributed a dividend of Rp 193.9 billion.
Currently, Multipolar holds a 50.2 percent share in Matahari, allowing the Lippo group to receive Rp88.75 billion of the dividends. Temasek Holding will get Rp46.3 billion of dividends as it owns 26.1 percent share in Matahari. The public, owning 23.7 percent, gets the rest.
Matahari experienced a bad year in 2015 with a drop in net income by 67 percent to Rp 183 billion. Its sales rose by only 2.5 percent to Rp 13.9 trillion.
"This is because of the weaker market compared to 2014. Customer traffic is relatively stable but purchasing has declined. There are also situations like haze in Kalimantan which hampered our costumers from shopping," he said.
The company is pessimistic about its sales in the first half of 2016 despite a decreasing prices due to the lower price of oil. "We may hope for a single digit growth in sales around 2.5 percent to 9 percent this year. We are more optimistic for the second semester performance," Danny said.
The year of 2015 was a disaster for local retailers as many of them recorded a plunge in net profit. Hero Supermarket recorded an Rp 62 billion losses and sold its convenience store chain Starmart to Japan's Family Mart.
However, Matahari remains optimistic given that Indonesia has a low hypermarket penetration to its 141 million middle class population. The hypermarket penetration ratio in Philippines is 1.4. Singapore and Thailand has a ratio of 2.6, and 4.1 respectively. Malaysia scores 5.6, the highest in Southeast Asia.
“Currently the hypermarket penetration is still below that in our neighboring countries with only one hypermarket per one million people," said Danny, adding that the company would add 45 new outlets. (ags)
