CII postponed dividend payment because the cash flow was slower than planned

The slow flow of cash from the BT project of Thu Thiem new urban area is the main reason why CII postpones dividends at the rate of 14% in cash.
In early April, Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company (Ticker: CII) announced to close the list of shareholders to pay dividends at the rate of 14% in cash (VND 1,400 per share), including 2 % in 2019 and 12% in 2020, with the deadline for payment is July 30. Immediately after that, CII suddenly temporarily canceled the disclosure of that information.

In the 2021 annual general meeting of shareholders on the morning of April 23, Mr. Le Quoc Binh, General Director of the company, explained the reason. Mr. Binh said that CII really wants to pay dividends because the BT project of Thu Thiem new urban area (total investment of over 10,000 billion dong) will finish this year and create cash flow for the company. However, this cash flow is late, and the debt index of the company at the end of 2020 will increase due to having to issue a large amount of bonds. In fact, bondholders forced CII to stop paying dividends to shareholders. Besides, the negotiation with foreign partners is quite difficult, so it is impossible to say when it is possible to close the right to pay dividend, Mr. Binh said. Shareholders suggest the company should use retained earnings from previous years to pay dividends in cash for shareholders. In response, Mr. Binh shared that according to the law, in order to pay dividends, the debt obligation criteria must be guaranteed in advance for a third party. Not to mention, CII needs to accumulate money to invest. Mr. Binh noted that it will be difficult for the company to ensure both debt repayment and investment and also pay dividends to shareholders. Therefore, Mr. Binh suggested that shareholders agree to the decisions of the Board of Directors to distribute profits, but Mr. Binh also affirmed that the company will do its best to ensure dividends to shareholders. 2021 is 12% cash (1,200 dong / share) “. The audited consolidated financial statements show that by the end of 2020, CII’s total liabilities are over 21,761 billion dong, of which short-term debt is 8,293 billion dong and long-term debt is over 13,468 billion dong. Debt to equity ratio is about 2.81 times. At the end of the stock trading session on April 24, the price of CII stock was temporarily stopped at VND 21,350 / share, a slight increase compared to the previous session, but down more than 6% within a week. CII share price fell by nearly 12% within a month and nearly 8% within a quarter.