PNJ spends more than 200 billion VND to pay 6% cash dividend

Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) said it will pay cash dividends at a rate of 6%, equivalent to shareholders owning 1 share will receive 600 VND.

Accordingly, on March 18, PNJ will finalize the list of shareholders attending the 2024 annual general meeting of shareholders and pay the first interim dividend of 2023. The company will pay cash dividends at a rate of 6%, equivalent to shareholders owning 1 share will receive 600 VND.

Thus, with more than 334 million shares in circulation, PNJ will have to spend more than VND 200 billion to pay dividends to existing shareholders. The expected dividend payment date is April 12. Regarding the schedule for the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, PNJ plans to hold it between April 16 and April 30. The meeting location and content will be announced by the Company later.

PNJ spends more than 200 billion VND to pay 6% cash dividend

In 2023, PNJ plans to maintain the same dividend rate as the previous year, equivalent to 20%. Thus, if the set target is achieved, after the interim dividend payment just announced, the Company will pay an additional dividend at a rate of 14%.

This year, Lunar New Year and God of Wealth Day fall in February 2024, so PNJ's business results in the first month of the year are not as positive as the first month of 2023. Specifically, PNJ announced that its net revenue in January 2024 reached VND 3,829 billion, down 7.3% over the same period last year. In 2023, Tet and God of Wealth Day are both in January 2023.

Gross profit in the first month of the year reached 660 billion, down 12.2% over the same period last year. Profit after tax reached 245 billion, down 18.6%.
As for each sales channel, PNJ's business results in January 2024 are as follows: Retail jewelry revenue in January 2024 decreased by 6.1% compared to the same period due to the late Lunar New Year and declining purchasing power.

Wholesale jewelry revenue in January 2024 increased by 32.6% YoY amid increased orders for the Lunar New Year. 24K gold revenue in January 2024 decreased by 15.6% YoY due to the impact of the Lunar New Year and God of Wealth Day. Average gross profit margin in January 2024 reached 17.2%, down from 18.2% in the same period in 2023 due to changes in the retail sales structure.

Total operating expenses in the first month of 2024 decreased by 3.7% compared to the same period last year. The operating expense/gross profit ratio in January increased from 47.5% to 52.1%.

At the end of January 2024, PNJ had 402 stores, including 393 PNJ stores, 5 Style by PNJ stores, 3 Cao Fine jewelry stores and 1 wholesale center. In the first month of this year, PNJ opened 2 new stores.

Forecasting the outlook for 2024, Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) forecasts that jewelry sales revenue, after a sharp decline in 2023, will grow again by around single digits in the first half of 2024, but the growth rate will gradually decrease in the remaining period of the year.

However, SSI believes in the ability to gain more market share of branded jewelry businesses such as PNJ because currently the group of unbranded jewelry businesses still holds a fairly large market share, estimated at 50 - 60%.

Source