Coal India Increases Dividend Payout for Second Time in a Month
The payment will amount to 7.13 billion rupees according to Bloomberg calculations.
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(Bloomberg) -- Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest miner of the fuel, said it will pay a dividend of 1.15 rupees a share, its second payout in less than a month.
The payment will amount to 7.13 billion rupees ($109 million), according to Bloomberg calculations based on a stock exchange filing Sunday. The Kolkata-based company has set March 29 as the record date for the latest payout. Earlier this month, Coal India announced a dividend of 18.75 rupees a share, which was 32 percent lower than the previous year’s payout.
Coal India earnings have declined because of provisions for a retroactive salary increase for staff. The company’s stock has declined about 0.7 percent this year, compared with a 10.5 percent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
“Until there is a recovery in earnings, the dividend yield remains the biggest draw for investors,” said Abhisar Jain, an analyst with Centrum Broking Ltd. in Mumbai. “Also, there seems to be some pressure from the government to pay more.”
The federal government owns 79 percent of Coal India, which has reported a year-over-year decline in earnings in the past three quarters.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rajesh Kumar Singh in New Delhi at rsingh133@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, Alpana Sarma, Steve Geimann