KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd
has declared a special tax-exempt dividend of four sen per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2022, pursuant to the successful completion of the Celcom-Digi merger.
The telco group said the dividend will be taken out of the cash proceeds of RM2.5bil received from Digi.com Bhd and RM300mil from Telenor Asia Pte Ltd in accordance with the terms of the share purchase agreement and master transaction agreement.
The bulk of the cash proceeds from the merger exercise will go towards strengthening the group's balance sheet by paring down debt.
"In advancing the group’s regional expansion strategy, the business to capture new opportunities as it across Asia," it added in a statement.
For the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2022, Axiata recorded a net loss of RM52.4mil in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2022, as it experienced significant foreign exchange losses from the strengthening of the US dollar against the local currencies of its operating companies (Opcos) and higher finance costs.
This represented a loss per share of 0.6 sen as compared to a profit of 3.8 per share in the same quarter last year.
This came on the back of RM7.2bil revenue, 11% higher from the same quarter of 2021.
