Batelco shareholders approve 2021 BD49.8 million Cash Dividends

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Batelco shareholders yesterday approved recommendation of the Board of Directors for a full year cash dividend of BD49.8M (US$132.1M), at a value of 30 fils per share, of which 13.5 fils per share was already paid during the third quarter of 2021.

The remaining 16.5 fils announced will be paid in the coming weeks. The decision was during the Annual General Meeting held virtually from Batelco’s Hamala Headquarters with Batelco Chairman, Batelco CEO and Batelco CFO in attendance.

Jaafar Al Qubaiti, Partner at KPMG, attended the meeting as Batelco’s external auditor, while representatives from Bahrain Bourse and shareholders joined the meeting virtually.

Batelco Chairman Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said, “The Board was very pleased to announce solid financial results for 2021 and delighted to see a 16% increase in net profits over 2020, the highest increase in the past 10 years.

Revenues, EBITDA and Operating Profits increased by 3%, 10% and 5% respectively, with the full set of results reflecting the efforts of Batelco’s teams to successfully implement the Company’s strategy which sharply focussed on digital growth and elevating core services.”

“Meeting our shareholders expectations is a priority for Batelco’s Board and achieving strong results has allowed us to maintain good dividend payouts for our shareholders of 30 fils per share, which is in line with 2020.”

Batelco CEO Mikkel Vinter presented an overview of Batelco’s performance in 2021 which highlighted the strong financial performance and key milestones achieved by Batelco Bahrain and the Company’s overseas operations.

“We maintained our focus on developing digital services and as a result of extensive planning and investment are now seeing the fruit of our efforts following the launch of Beyon Money, the first financial Super App in Bahrain.

To continue the momentum with digital growth plans, we recently announced the launch of three more new digital brands; Beyon Cyber, Beyon Solutions, and Beyon Connect and we are very excited to develop these over the year ahead,” Vinter added.