HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) will payevery shareholder 1,500 VND (0.06 USD) per share, or a 15 percent cash dividendrate, to complete its 2018 dividend plan.

The company will finalise the list of beneficial shareholderson September 6 and payment will be made on September 27.

With more than 641.28 million shares listed on the Ho ChiMinh Stock Exchange (HoSE: SAB), Sabeco will have to pay 960 billion VND (42.24million USD) to shareholders this time.

Sabeco shareholders approved the 15 percent cash dividendrate in April, raising the firm’s 2018 must-pay dividend rate to 50 percentfrom previous 35 percent.

In December and October 2018, Sabeco made two advanced cashdividend payments for shareholders, worth total 2.24 trillion VND.

In 2018, Sabeco earned 36 trillion VND worth of totalrevenue, up 5.1 percent year on year. Its post-tax profit fell 11 percent yearon year to 4.4 trillion VND. The company recorded its undistributed post-taxprofit had reached 7.47 trillion VND as of December 31, 2018.

In the first half of 2019, the brewery posted a 9 percentincrease in total revenue, which was 18.4 trillion VND. The firm also saw itsprofit gain 16 percent year on year to 3.45 trillion VND in the first sixmonths.

In 2019, Sabeco targets to achieve nearly 39 trillion VND intotal revenue and 4.7 trillion VND  innet profit. The figures are respectively up 8.3 percent and 6.8 percent year onyear.

In late 2017, Vietnam Beverage – the Vietnam-based unit ofThai Beverage Public Company Limited (ThaiBev) – purchased 343.6 million Sabecoshares or 53.58 percent of the Vietnamese brewer’s charter capital for 110trillion VND.

After ThaiBev completed its purchase of Sabeco shares,worries about the prospects of the Vietnamese brewer sent its shares down 40.5 percentfrom the record high of 329,460 VND (14.5 USD) per share on November 29, 2017.

Since then, Sabeco shares have gained 42 percent to end at 278,400VND per share on August 23.

The growth of Sabeco shares shows investors have reacted wellto the company’s performance, especially with ThaiBev topping the firm’s governancesystem, according to Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC).

ThaiBev has made significant changes in the structure ofSabeco and the restructuring was the reason for increased earnings in the firsthalf of 2019.

Efforts have been made to win market shares in major localmarkets like Da Nang and HCM City, cut production and logistics expenses, andincrease the firm’s total production capacity.

The company might continue to beat its 2019 full-yearearnings targets, BVSC said.-VNS/VNA