EDL Gen, one of the major electricity generators in Laos will pay a dividend of about 208 billion kip for the first six months of the year to shareholders this month.

The public company announced this week that its Board of Directors had approved a resolution this month to pay the first six months of this year dividend of about 208 billion kip (US$26 million) to shareholders or 170 kip per share.

The before tax dividend of the EDL Gen comes from 50 percent of the company profit over first six months of this year at rate of 142.40 kip per share and the dividend payment from amount of the retained earnings for the year 2011 at the rate 27.60 kip per share.

EDL Gen expects to transfer the dividend to accounts of shareholders at the end of this month, according to the announcement.

The announcement from the company does not provide the amount of the revenue and profit it made over the first half of this year.

However, according to a report from BCEL KT, one of the stock trading brokers in Laos in June, EDL Gen expect to make a profit of about US$105 million in 2012, increasing from US$71 million in 2011 thanks to increasing price of electricity and greater production output.

EDL Gen expects to complete acquisition of EDL shares from four Independent Power Projects after mobilizing more than US$200 million from sale of additional shares to existing and new shareholders last month.

At present, EDL Gen owns 7 hydropower plants with total installed electricity generation capacity of about 387 MW. The production capacity of the EDL Gen will reach 870 MW after complete takeover of the EDL shares in IPP.

In 2011, EDL Gen paid the first six months dividend of 154 billion kip or 178 kip per share. For the whole year, the company paid 432 billion kip in dividend to shareholders or 498 kip per share.

The decision of EDL Gen to pay the dividend to shareholders gives a clearer picturee to the benefit of holding EDL Gen shares as most the Lao investors decided to invest in the stock market because they wanted to receive dividends rather than make a profit from stock trading. Lao people have little experience in stock trading as the concept is new to the country.

The major shareholder of EDL Gen is EDL, one of the state-owned enterprises, which hold 75 percent of the EDL Gen shares, other shareholders of the company are RATCH Laos, BCEL Bank, Lao Development and Krungthai Bank, RH International (Singapore) Corporation, Leopard Cambodia Fund and others.


Source: Vientiane Times
August 20, 2012