Companies

Stella Holdings announces increase in the payout to shareholders

Aug 30, 2024 Hong Kong

After achieving a 54% year-over-year rise in first half net profit, the Hong Kong-based footwear manufacturer has announced a significant increase in the payout to shareholders over the next three years

As previously reported, Stella’s unaudited consolidated revenue for the first half of the year reached 748.8 million US dollars, an increase of 7.4% over the same period of last year, driven primarily by orders in the sports category.

This was the result of a 12.3% year-over-year increase in unit volume to 26.5 million pairs and a 4.4% year-over-year decrease in average unit selling price to 28.3 million US dollars (due to the lower average selling price of sports products). Nevertheless, the group’s non-sports manufacturing facilities operated at close to full capacity throughout the period.

The company also saw continued gross profit margin improvement from an enhanced customer mix, which, together with improved operating leverage from the increased utilisation of its sports manufacturing facilities, led to an expansion of its operating profit margin to 12.9% from 9.0% in the same period last year

Ultimately, Stella recorded a first half net profit of 91.5 million US dollars. Excluding a net mark-to-market change in the fair value of its investment in the Lanvin Group, the adjusted net profit for the period increased by 54.1% to 92.9 million, and the net profit margin rose from 8.4% to 12.1%.

As a result, the board of the company has decided to return additional cash to shareholders over the next three years of up to 60 million US dollars per year, not to exceed 180 million US dollars in total, through a combination of share repurchases and special dividends, in addition to paying regular dividends with a payout ratio of 70% (consisting of final and interim dividends).

Image Credits: Dane Deaner on Unsplash

Hong Kong Companies Footwear Management Quarter Results Results Stella