Splash, Megawide declare dividends

MANILA, Philippines - Listed personal care manufacturer Splash Corp. and building contractor Megawide Construction Corp. are rewarding their shareholders with cash and stock dividends, respectively.

In a disclosure, the cosmetics firm declared a seven-centavo per share cash dividend, up from six centavos last year. Splash said stockholders as of April 30 will receive the bonus on May 15.

The company will be handing out a total P45.44 million in cash payout this year, higher than the P38.95 million in 2012.

In the nine months to September last year, profits of the personal care firm sank to P15.12 million from P66.625 million the previous year as cost of goods and services increased.

Splash, which is consistently in the top 300 Philippine corporations since 1998, carries the brands Extraderm, Maxi-Peel, Skin White and Bioskin, one of the fastest-growing skin care brands in the country.

For its part, construction firm Megawide is handing out additioinal stocks to its shareholders.

Megawide said its board of directors “decided to declare stock dividends of 334.23 million common shares of stock, which is equivalent to 30 percent of the outstanding shares of stock, with a par value of P1 each or an aggregate value of P334.23 million.”

The timeline for the dividend has yet to be finalized.

Last year, Megawide declared a cash dividend of 13 centavos per share or a total of P150.02 million.

Its board last year discussed a plan to set up a dividend policy of declaring annual cash or stock dividends ranging from payout ratio of 10-20 percent. In 2011, Megawide distributed a 30-percent stock dividend.

Megawide, which targeted a net income growth of almost 80 percent to P1.6 billion in 2012, has yet to announce its full-year financial performance.

The listed firm is the main contractor of condominium builder SM Development Corp.

It is also in talks with three groups for a joint bid to rehabilitate the 68-year-old Philippine Orthopedic Center in Quezon City.

Megawide has been actively participating in projects offered by the government under the Public-Private Partnership program. It won two school infrastructure projects involving the construction of a total of 7,144 classrooms in Central and Southern Luzon.