21st Century Business Herald reporter Dong Peng reported from Chengdu
Perhaps it was inquired by the exchange, and the market expected that the dividend plan may be adjusted in the future, and the opening limit of Jilin Expressway on April 15 was limited.
On the evening of April 14, Jilin Expressway announced that the Shanghai Stock Exchange issued an inquiry letter on its 2023 profit distribution plan, requiring the company to explain its non-dividend and the abstention of the company's vice chairman and independent directors.
The Jilin Expressway is not a special case. At the end of March, Fangda Special Steel also received an inquiry letter due to profit distribution, but then the company adjusted its dividend plan and gave a detailed explanation in the reply.
Inquiries about the dividend plans of listed companies may increase in the future. With the release of the new "National Nine Articles" last weekend, the regulator has become more strict about the dividend behavior of listed companies.
For example, according to the revised listing rules of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the trigger conditions for other risk warnings include "a company with a positive net profit in the most recent fiscal year, and the company's consolidated statement and the undistributed profit at the end of the year of the parent company's statement are positive, and the cumulative cash dividend amount in the last three fiscal years is less than 30% of the average annual net profit in the last three fiscal years, and the cumulative dividend amount in the last three fiscal years is less than 50 million yuan." ”
However, the 21st Century Business Herald combed the data and found that in the actual operation process, due to the obvious differences in the industry characteristics and development stages of each listed company, it is not easy to simply quantify whether it has the ability to pay dividends.
Wind data shows that as of April 15, among the A-share companies that have disclosed their annual reports, there are about 300 companies that have not distributed profits for three consecutive years, and some of them have not distributed profits at the end of the period is very considerable, but in combination with their industries and enterprises, the dividend ability is slightly insufficient.
Inquiries
Jilin Expressway was questioned, mainly because of its growing net profit in recent years and declining profit distribution.
The data shows that from 2020 to 2023, the net profit attributable to the parent company of listed companies has increased year by year, from 99 million yuan to 546 million yuan, but the company only paid cash dividends of 32 million yuan in 2021, which also made the company's undistributed profits at the end of the period continue to accumulate in the same period, with a net increase of more than 1 billion yuan in three years.
Historically, Jilin Expressway was listed in 2010 and has paid cash dividends 10 times so far, with a cumulative dividend amount of 570 million yuan, accounting for 15.7% of the total cumulative net profit of listed companies, and the dividend rate is also low.
According to its 2023 profit distribution plan, the company will not distribute profits, cash dividends, share gifts and capital reserve to increase share capital.
At that time, the listed company gave a number of reasons such as "the company's capital investment is still large", "it is necessary to reserve working funds to ensure debt solvency" and "the company's cumulative expenditure on foreign investment and acquisition of assets in the next 12 months is relatively large".
On April 11, the board of directors of Jilin Expressway deliberated 18 proposals, including the annual report and the report of the board of directors, of which 17 proposals were unanimously passed, and only the voting result of the annual profit distribution plan was "5 votes agreed, 0 votes against, and 2 abstentions".
Those who abstained from voting were Liu Xianfu, vice chairman of Jilin Expressway, and Lin Jianzhong, independent director.
Liu Xianfu's reason for abstaining from voting was that "it is recommended that the company should consider the immediate cash return requirements of shareholders and formulate a cash dividend plan while meeting the long-term development capital needs." ”
Lin Jianzhong took into account the suggestions of changes in the capital market environment, and formulated an appropriate cash dividend plan in 2023 in accordance with regulatory requirements and the actual situation of the company.
According to public information, Liu Xianfu is from China Merchants Group and is currently a senior consultant of China Merchants Highway Network Technology Holding Co., Ltd.
China Merchants Highway Network Co., Ltd. is the second largest shareholder of Jilin Expressway, holding 14% of the shares of the listed company, second only to the largest shareholder Jilin Expressway Group.
In addition to the different opinions of the vice chairman and independent directors on the plan, the exchange also quickly inquired about the dividend plan.
Regarding the above-mentioned reasons such as "capital investment is still large" put forward by Jilin Expressway, the inquiry letter of the exchange also directly listed a number of data for questioning: "As of the end of the reporting period, the company's asset-liability ratio was 17.96%, declining for many years...... The balance of monetary funds at the end of the period amounted to 1.513 billion yuan. ”
At the same time, the letter of inquiry requires Jilin Expressway to list in detail the specific use plan of the retained funds, including the specific operating capital budget, debt repayment arrangement, and the specific direction of foreign investment.
The reporter inquired about the data and found that due to the particularity of the industry in which Jilin Expressway is located, the company's own operating costs have not increased significantly in recent years, and the overall situation has remained relatively stable.
The data shows that from 2020 to 2023, except for the operating cost in 2022, which will reach 790 million yuan, the rest of the years will fluctuate between 6.1-670 million yuan, and the total liabilities in 2023 will also decrease significantly compared with before 2020.
In this case, it is worth paying attention to whether Jilin Expressway will adjust the plan in the future.
variable
While the capital market continues to pay more attention to dividends, a list of listed companies that have not paid dividends for many years has also been circulated in the circle of friends recently, and the most extreme cases are even 0 dividends for 30 years after listing.
However, after careful examination, many of the companies in the above list have been negative for a long time, and such companies have no share, and it is unrealistic to demand dividends.
Only A-share companies that have not paid dividends in the past three years are used as observation samples. Wind statistics show that as of April 15, the 2023 annual report has been released, but the profit distribution plan has not been disclosed, and there are about 300 A-share listed companies that meet the conditions for no dividends in 2021 and 2022, but more than half of them have negative undistributed profits at the end of the period.
Some of the undistributed profits are large, and many listed companies that seem to have relatively thick family backgrounds also do not have the ability to pay dividends if they take into account the current situation of their industry and the company's own capital situation.
For example, Seazen Holdings in the real estate industry, the company's net profit has plummeted from 12.6 billion yuan to 740 million yuan in the past three years, and the undistributed profit at the end of 2023 will exceed 54 billion yuan, but the asset-liability ratio is close to 77%.
For example, some listed companies that have lost money in individual years will also not pay dividends.
Taking Huaneng International as an example, the company lost 10.26 billion yuan and 7.39 billion yuan in 2021 and 2022 respectively, and the company did not distribute profits in the current period, during which the company's undistributed profits at the end of the period decreased significantly, and it was not until 2023 that the company restarted dividends.
In addition, some companies can also take advantage of some existing buyback rules to waive cash dividends. For example, Fangda Carbon's undistributed profit at the end of the period exceeded 9.8 billion yuan, and the company plans not to pay cash dividends, give bonus shares, or convert capital reserves into share capital in 2023.
The key is that the company will use its own funds to complete a share repurchase of 280 million yuan in 2023. According to the relevant guidelines of the exchange, "if a listed company uses cash as consideration to repurchase shares by centralized bidding or offer, the amount of share repurchase that has been implemented in the current year shall be regarded as cash dividends and shall be included in the calculation of the relevant proportion of cash dividends in that year." ”
This means that Fangda Carbon's 280 million yuan repurchase is regarded as cash dividends, and based on this calculation, the company's cash dividends in 2023 account for 67.27% of the company's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the company's 2023 consolidated statements (416 million yuan).
There are many similar cases.
Chifeng Gold, which has not paid dividends for many years, has a profit distribution plan of cash dividends plus repurchases in 2023, of which cash dividends of 80 million yuan and 220 million yuan have been repurchased, accounting for 37.62% of the company's current net profit after combined calculation.
From the above cases, it is not difficult to see that there are a number of uncertain factors in whether a listed company pays dividends, and its dividend ability is also difficult to quantify through a single indicator, which needs to be determined in combination with the company's industry, debt level, undistributed profits, earnings and repurchases.
It should also be pointed out that the newly revised "Company Law" will come into force on July 1 this year, and the scope of listed companies with dividends may also be expanded at that time.
"An important amendment [to the New Company Law], namely that 'the provident fund can be used to cover the company's losses', replaces the original provision that 'the capital reserve may not be used to cover the company's losses'. Salt Lake pointed out that the company will formulate a reasonable dividend policy in accordance with the spirit of the new law and the actual situation of the company to ensure that it will actively return investors while ensuring the steady development of the company.
According to Salt Lake's regular report, as of the end of 2023, the company's undistributed profit at the end of the period was -15.06 billion yuan, while the capital reserve reached 40.76 billion yuan.
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