Tuesday, 06 July 2010 00:00 [ manilatimes.net ]
A top official of Empire East Land Holdings Inc. said the company’s board has yet to decide when it must issue dividends since its profits may be used for expansion. “That is a matter subject to board decision. It depends on whether the board feels that said amount is necessary for expansion. The more upbeat a company is, the more it would require cash for expansion,” Anthony Charlemagne Yu, Empire East president, said in a text message.
“At this point, it would not be proper for me to second-guess our board since the directions should really come from them,” he added.
Empire East distributed no cash dividend to its shareholders in the last three years.
In March 2006, it declared a 15-percent stock dividend, which was paid on August 8 of the same year to all shareholders as of July 13 that year.
Earnings of Empire East have been declining since 2008. After posting a net income of P307.98 million in 2007, the company reported that its profit dipped to P215 million in 2008 and dropped further to P155.03 million last year.
The real estate firm has earmarked P12 billion for the construction of new projects in the next five years to meet the middle-income market’s demand for housing.
Empire East is set to unveil five projects in the coming months, which include The Sonoma in Sta. Rosa, Laguna; The Rochester in Pasig City; and Central Park at Cambridge Village.
On the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting last month, Yu said he was confident that Empire East would surpass last year’s sales growth because of the strong demand from the middle-income market.
Last year, the property firm’s sales reservations went up by 55 percent to P7.3 billion from P4.7 billion in 2008 despite uncertainties posed by the global economic crisis.
Empire East shares rose from P0.43 to P0.44 each on Monday.
KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE
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