EDP Energias de Portugal, that has as main shareholder China Three Gorges (CTG), is paying its highest dividends ever.
EDP shareholders started receiving EUR 753.5 million in dividends this Monday.
Although the value per share remains at 0.19 euros, the total amount is the highest ever for the Portuguese company due to the capital increase carried out this year.
Although the largest shareholder, CTG, accompanied the capital increase operation, it subsequently divested from the Portuguese electricity company.
China Three Gorges to Sell EDP Portugal Shares Worth EUR 500 million
CTG’s shareholder position was thus reduced to 19.03%, which gives it EUR 143.4 million in dividends. For the second year in a row, the Chinese see their dividend check being reduced. Since it entered EDP’s capital in October 2011, the largest shareholder has received almost 1.5 billion euros in dividends.
The electric company closed 2020 with a net profit of EUR 801 million, an increase of 56% compared to the previous year.
The results were negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, in EUR 100 million, and by the early closure of the Sines coal-fired plant, which cost another EUR 100 million, according to EDP.
The board proposed that almost all of the EUR 801 million of profits be handed over to the shareholders as dividends.
In addition to CTG, there are six other shareholders with qualified stakes (over 2% of the capital).
The second is the Spanish Oppidum Capital, with 7.2% of the capital, which will receive 54.2 million, while BlackRock will be paid 43 million and Norges Bank 23.5 million.
Chinese and Spaniards Increasingly Concentrating Power in Portugal’s EDP
These are the first dividends to be distributed by new CEO Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade (pictured above), who has kept the strategy of predecessor António Mexia with regard to the minimum dividend.
The manager presented a new strategy for the period between 2021 and 2025, in which he says he expects profits to increase by 8% a year to a billion in 2023 and 1.2 billion in 2025. EBITDA could grow 6% to €4.7 billion.
