Dubai: The Dubai utility giant DEWA will seek shareholder approval to pay Dh3.1 billion as interim dividend for H1-2022, with October 20 set as the ‘record date’. DEWA’s payout will reinforce Dubai’s strategy of bringing to market high dividend generating government-owned entities and have investors looking far beyond buy-and-sell strategies on profit-taking.
Instead, the emphasis for investors is to hold and thus plug into the full possibilities these companies can offer medium- to long-term. The general assembly has been called for October 10.
DEWA has set October 20 as the 'date of record'.
The Dubai utility powerhouse will hold a shareholders' meet on October 10.
“DEWA’s Dh3.1 billion is in line with what was said at the time of the IPO,” said an analyst. “The company has come up with strong set of financials after the DFM listing, and paying out the first dividend in October will lead to see some heavy activity for the stock.”
In another move, DEWA’s Board of Directors will also take shareholder support to ‘suspend’ any further allocation from profits towards the company’s legal reserves. The legal reserve is already in excess of 50 per cent of the share capital.
Sets up Dubai’s next IPOs
All signs point to a busy round of further IPOs headed for DFM, with the toll gate operator Salik launching subscriptions shortly. The company on Monday confirmed that it would be issuing all of its future profits as dividends.
Then there’s the district cooling company Empower, in which DEWA holds a sizeable stake. In a recent statement, DEWA confirmed it’s still looking into the possibility of floating Empower, but market analysts reckon it’s only a matter of time before this gets done.
“Empower has gone through consolidating district cooling assets in the city and will be the next Dubai utility firm that would benefit from a stock market float,” said an analyst.
