Total Nigeria Slashes Dividend by 48.63%

Investors hope of a bumper harvest from quoted oil marketing firms may not be met going by the decision by Total Nigeria Plc to cut its proposed dividend recommendation to shareholders of the company for the 2010 financial year by 48.63 percent. Instead the company recommended a dividend of N6.00 per share.

This was contained in the corporate actions of the firm released last week on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Total operates in the petroleum marketing sector of the NSE.

To record the cut in dividend payment to shareholders of the company in the period under review, Total paid N6.00 in the year ended December 31, 2009 compared to N11.68 kobo proposed for the year, indicating a decrease of 48.63 per cent.

The third quarter result for the period ended September 30 2010, showed that the turnover of the petroleum marketing firm dipped by 6.94 per cent when it recorded N121. 99 billion for the quarter, compared to N131. 09 billion during the corresponding period in 2009.

Total reported a profit after tax of N4.19 billion in the same quarter in 2010 compared to N2.99 billion in the corresponding period of 2009, showing a growth of 43.57 percent in the review period.

Meanwhile, in the corporate action, Total affirmed that the closure date of its register is 09 to 13 May 2011, while the payment date for dividends has been scheduled for July 01 2011.

Source : Thisday