Sonae with less profit, but higher dividend
The company led by Cláudia Azevedo made less profit last year due to the absence of extraordinary. But the business grew, leading Sonae to propose a dividend of 4.63 cents.
Sonae made less profit in 2019. The company led by Cláudia Azevedo closed last year with a net profit of 165 million euro, a fall explained by the absence of extraordinary provisions that pulled the previous year’s accounts. Business grew, with turnover increasing almost double digits.
The net profit “was 165 million euros, [20%] below last year’s figure only due to non-recurrent items in the previous year, namely the capital gains registered in the Outsystems transaction by Sonae IM, in the sale of assets by Sonae Sierra and in the sale & leaseback operations executed by Sonae MC”, says the company. These had a positive effect of 104 million in 2018.
“Excluding these provisions, the net profit would have grown significantly”, notes the company, which, in this sense, decided to proceed with an increase in the remuneration to be delivered to shareholders. It proposes a gross dividend of “0.0463 euros per share, 5% higher than the dividend distributed in the previous year”, corresponding to 43% of profits.
Revenues grow almost 10%
The “significant growth” in results is supported by the other indicators presented by Sonae. Underlying EBITDA increased by 22.2% to 599 million euros, “with improvements in profitability in all the main businesses.” EBITDA increased by 7.5% to 695 million.
Revenue further increased. According to information sent by the company led by Cláudia Azevedo, “Sonae’s turnover reached 6,435 million euros in 2019, increasing 9.2% year-on-year, benefiting mostly from Sonae MC’s performance and the annual consolidation of sales in statutory terms of Sonae Sierra”.
