On Wednesday at 10:40 AM (Bangkok time), the share price of SCB X Public Company Limited (SET: SCB) jumped by 5.77% or THB 6.00 to THB 110.00 per share, with a trading value of THB 3.40 billion.
The surge came after the company announced the details of the dividend payment on Tuesday.
Asia Plus Securities stated that SCB announced its dividend payment for 2H23 at THB 7.84 per share (a dividend yield of around 7.54%), with an XD date of April 17, 2024. The total amount of dividend paid when combined with the 1H23 of THB 2.5 per share was THB 10.34 per share. The amount accumulated to the dividend payout ratio of 80%, an increase from 60% of net profit in the previous year.
Meanwhile, after allocating the remaining profit from the dividend payment to capital, the BIS ratio and Tier-1, based on the estimation of SCB, will be at 18.9% and 17.8%, respectively (the BIS ratio and Tier-1 were at 18.8% and 17.7% at the end of 2023), which were higher than the minimum criteria stated in the law of 12% and 9.5%, respectively.
As for the dividend payout ratio next year, it depends on investment opportunities in the future. With the aforementioned BIS ratio and Tier-1, as well as the moderate trend for an expansion of loan growth following Thai economic recovery, the analyst expected that the dividend payout ratio in the next three years would be around 60%-80%.
The increase in dividend payout ratio conformed to the analyst’s point of view. The view was that, under the gradual growth of Thailand’s economy, the uplift of the dividend payout ratio to increase ROE (9.3% in 2023 vs the highest of 22% in 2013) was appealing for the group company.
The aforementioned dividend yield of SCB in 2023 topped TISCO, which was considered the best dividend stocks in the financial sector, and could potentially be on top among the SET50 stocks.
In addition, the share price of SCB could see a positive response from the dividend payment or limit the downside per share price for at least until the XD date.
