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Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi

Taqa sets new dividend policy for 2023-2025; special payout

ABU DHABI, March 16, 2023

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company’s (Taqa) shareholders have approved a new dividend policy for 2023-25 based on a combination of fixed and variable dividends at the firm’s Annual General Assembly.
 
Under the new policy, the company expects to pay a fixed dividend per share, derived from its utilities earnings, of 3.25 fils ($0.91) in 2023, 3.50 fils in 2024 and 3.75 fils in 2025. Similar to the previous policy, Taqa will continue to pay the fixed dividends on a quarterly basis. 
 
In addition to this, it proposes to pay a variable dividend calculated based on a discretionary percentage of the company’s net profit from its oil and gas business. The variable dividend is to be paid annually following approval at the relevant Annual General Assembly. 
 
Special dividend
The company also announced a special dividend of 2.1 fils/share, and 1.2 fils/share for Q4 which, in addition to the interim dividends of 0.6 fils/share paid for each of Q1, Q2 and Q3, brings the total dividends for 2022 to 5.1 fils (AED5.74 billion).
 
In addition to the new dividend policy and the special dividend for 2022, the company expanded the size of its Board of Directors from nine to eleven and elected the following members for a new term of three years:
Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Chairman
Khalifa Sultan Al Suwaidi, Vice Chairman
Mansour Mohamed AlMulla, Board Member
Hamad Abdulla Al Hammadi, Board Member
AbdulAziz Abdulla Al Hajri, Board Member
Iman Adulghafoor Al Qasim, Board Member
Mouza Saeed Al Romaithi, Board Member
Samia Bouazza Toufic, Board Member
Dr Klaus-Dieter Maubach, Board Member
Christopher Geoffrey Finlayson, Board Member
Jasim Husain Thabet, Board Member
 
30pc female managers
The new Board was selected through an election process after announcing candidates in February. As part of the company’s ESG 2030 targets, it is aiming to reach at least 30% of its managers be represented by females by 2030. 
 
In keeping with the desire to achieve greater female representation, the Board nominees included six strong female candidates which has resulted in shareholders electing three women to the Board of Directors.  
 
Alsuwaidi commented: “Taqa Group continues to execute on its strategy and deliver sustainable growth across its businesses as one of the largest integrated utilities in the Middle East, Europe and North African region. As part of Taqa’s journey, the new Board of Directors, elected at the company’s Annual General Assembly, brings in-depth experience and diversity that will ensure the company continues to build on its success to date and deliver sustained value for its shareholders and stakeholders, whilst contributing to the UAE’s national decarbonisation objectives in the ‘Year of Sustainability’.” 
 
Compelling investment proposition
Thabet said: “Taqa’s robust and consistent financial performance and strong credit ratings over the past three years have meant that as a company, we have been able to maintain a progressive dividend policy for our shareholders. The new policy is an evolution of the quarterly policy we announced in 2020. Shareholders will enjoy a fixed return from our utilities business, which has long-term and predictable contracted earnings, and a discretionary variable dividend based on the annual net profit of our oil and gas business. As a company we offer a compelling investment proposition as we harness the opportunities the energy transition is providing, and we remain focused on growing our utilities business whilst maintaining our commitment to our ESG targets.” 
 
In February, Taqa reported its full year financial results for the year ended December 31, 2022, with net income increasing to AED8 billion. The strong financial results were underpinned by its utilities business and boosted by the strong recovery in commodity prices.-- TradeArabia News Service
 



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