Crystal Telecoms shareholders can look forward to a dividend payout of Rwf2.96 per share in December, the firm’s board has announced. This follows an August 9 resolution by the board to disburse Rwf800 million total dividend for the six months ending June 30, 2016.

This represents a dividend of Rwf2.96 per share of 270,177,320 shares issued during last year’s Initial Public Offer. 

According to the firm’s half year financial statement to Rwanda Stock Exchange, the dividend will be paid on December 19. However, the register will close on December 2, the statement by the firm’s company secretary David Karima, indicates.

The half year dividend payout has, however, dropped significantly compared to the previous payment in March. In March, the firm announced a dividend disbursement of Rwf2.23 billion, or Rwf8.2 per dividend payout per share. This will be the third dividend payment since the firm listed on the bourse in July last year. The company paid a first special dividend per share of Rwf3.75 in October 2015.

Meanwhile, the firm’s pre-tax profit for the period January-June went down compared to the last half of last year. The firm recorded Rwf419.4 million profit before tax compared to Rwf1.15 billion registered in July-December, 2015 period. In the same period, the firm’s total assets dropped from about Rwf28.9 billion to over Rwf27.2 billion.

Crystal Telecom last year sold 270.71 million shares or 20 per cent of leading telecom, MTN Rwanda. The IPO was at Rwf105 with the minimum share application at 1,000 shares.

The shares debuted at the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) at Rwf145 in July last year, but the counter was trading at Rwf70 yesterday.