The board for listed financial institution, CBZ Holdings,has proposed the declaration of a final dividend of ZWL$120 million, which translates into over 1 700 percent growth on the comparative prior year final dividend.
A dividend is the distribution of a portion of the company’s earnings, decided and managed by the company’s board of directors and paid to a class of its shareholders.
CBZ remains one of the few profitable businesses in Zimbabwe.
“The board has proposed the declaration of a final dividend of ZWL$120 000 000 or 22.99 cents per share,” said the company’s board chairman, Marc Holtzman, in a statement accompanying audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2019.
“This declaration translates to a growth of 1766.1% on the comparative 2018 final dividend. A separate dividend announcement with entitlement dates will be published.”
The financial giant posted ZWL$312, 5 million profit after taxation during the period under review, despite the difficult operating environment.
“The operating environment presented a number of challenges during the period under review,” bemoaned Holtzman.
“On the global scale, the International Monetary Fund “IMF” estimates global growth to have declined from 3.6% in 2018 to a revised 2.9% in 2019. Underpinning the slowdown in global activity was the combined effects of trade and geo-political tensions, Brexit related uncertainties and general weaknesses in emerging markets.”
He added: “However, these threats also allowed businesses to strengthen in existing markets and explore new global markets, as well as improve trade agreements and partnerships. This, in turn, sustained the demand for trade finance and related services.”
He said despite the economic challenges, all the group’s business segments remained adaptive and flexible enough to pursue tactics that minimised risks, while at the same time taking advantage of emerging opportunities to preserve and grow shareholder value.
“The CBZ group will continue to play its part in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Holtzman.
“The group also remains financially and technically well prepared and positioned to play its part in both private sector led economic growth and public-private-partnerships.”
