D&L Industries Inc., the country’s top specialty food ingredients and oleochemicals producer, expects exports to account for 50 percent of total revenues in two to three years as it continues to ramp up the capacity of its newly-built manufacturing plant in Batangas province.
D&L president and chief executive Alvin Lao said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting Monday the company is on track to achieving one of its biggest goals of having exports account for at least 50 percent of total revenues.
“Over the longer-term, we have a lot of confidence that the new investments that we have made over the past years will pave the way for higher and more sustainable profit growth,” Lao said.
“To date, our Batangas plant has been instrumental in opening up new markets for us as we aspire to become a truly global Filipino manufacturing company,” he said.
Exports recovered sharply in the first three months of the year with revenues up by 39 percent year-on-year, bringing the export contribution to total sales almost at a record high of 32 percent for the period.
This is expected to rise to the mid-to-high 30s by the end of 2024, the company said.
“With the new capabilities and capacity that the Batangas plant brings, D&L reasonably expects that it will be able to achieve its goal of having exports account for at least 50 percent of total revenues in the next couple of years,” said Lao.
Meanwhile, D&L Industries also declared cash dividends amounting to P1.49 billion consisting of a regular cash dividend of P0.161 per share, plus a special cash dividend of P0.048 per share.
Shareholders of record as of June 19 are entitled to the dividend. Ex-date is June 18 and payment will be made within 30 days of the dividend declaration or on July 3.
“Management remains highly committed to its regular dividend policy of a 50 percent payout ratio based on prior year’s net income. On top of that, for the fourth consecutive year since the peak of the pandemic in 2020, D&L was able to declare special dividends,” Lao said.
D&L’s payout ratio remains at 65 percent of prior year’s net income, which is at par with the payout ratio in 2022 and 2023. This year’s dividend translates to a 3.3 percent yield based on May 31’s closing price of P6.28 per share.
