Agthia proposes 14.4% higher dividend after H1 profit jumps 147%

Free cash flow reaches Dh521 million as debt ratio falls and cash rises to Dh870 million

Last updated: August 05, 2026 | 10:08

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

Agthia proposes 14.4% higher dividend after H1 profit jumps 147%

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Dubai: Abu Dhabi-based Agthia Group has recommended a 14.4% increase in its interim dividend after first-half net profit more than doubled and cash generation improved.

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The food and beverage company proposed an interim cash dividend of 11.792 fils per share for the six months ended June 30, marking a second consecutive increase in shareholder returns.

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Net profit rose 147.4% year-on-year to Dh121.4 million during the first half of 2026, while revenue increased 7.4% to Dh2.6 billion.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation climbed 35.8% to Dh310.5 million, with the EBITDA margin expanding by 250 basis points to 11.9%.

Revenue growth included one-off sales through the UAE food security programme, reflecting the group’s role in supporting national food supplies.

Cash flow strengthens balance sheet

Agthia generated Dh521.4 million in free cash flow during the first half, reversing an outflow recorded a year earlier.

The group reduced its net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to 1.8 times from 2.9 times at the end of December 2025 and closed June with Dh869.6 million in cash.

Total assets increased to Dh6.5 billion by the end of the reporting period.

Second-quarter earnings improve

Agthia reported second-quarter revenue of Dh1.3 billion, representing an increase of 11.9% from the same period last year.

Quarterly EBITDA rose 172.5% to Dh117.2 million, while the EBITDA margin expanded by 542 basis points to 9.2%.

Net profit for the three-month period reached Dh24.5 million.

Water and food lead growth

Revenue from Agthia’s Water and Food division increased 38.9% during the second quarter.

Al Ain, which Agthia described as its first billion-dirham brand, increased its bottled water value market share by two percentage points compared with the same period last year.

The Protein and Frozen division recorded revenue growth of 22%, led by a 32.5% increase at Nabil. Atyab revenue rose 8.1%, while production continued to increase at the group’s Saudi protein facility.

Agri-Business revenue advanced 11% following stronger demand for animal feed, with Agrivita feed sales increasing 23.3%.

Abu Auf maintained its expansion during the quarter, reporting a 23.7% increase in revenue, while the group continued restructuring work across its Al Foah and BMB snacking businesses.

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Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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