The Board of Directors of RFM Corp. has approved a cash dividend of P394 million or P0.116936 per share, payable on Feb. 22 with record date as of Jan. 26, 2022.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, RFM CEO Jose Ma. A. Concepcion III said that “RFM is looking into more dividend payments, perhaps quarterly instead of twice a year and also targeting about 5 percent dividend yield.”
“RFM paid out 60 percent of its net income in the previous year but we will revisit in late 2022 if we can further improve our payout, given the cash accumulation and performance of the brands,” he added.
Concepcion said “our unaudited, internal estimates of topline for 2021 at over P16.8 billion show a decent seven percent growth from 2020 while income is expected to be flattish versus 2021’s P1.29 billion.”
RFM’s Ice Cream business joint venture with Unilever saw a better year in 2021 despite cost pressures from raw materials while its milk, pasta and sauces sustained sales growth momentum with a good lift from LGU demand in the last quarter.
White King mixes and RFM’s institutional flour and bunline businesses also remain in growth mode.
“However, the inflation from elevated wheat, milk and other key raw material prices are dampening the expansion in our net income,” said Concepcion.
He noted that, “the good thing with our brands especially in the ice cream unit, is that even if we experience cost pressures from raw materials and opex this year, we have been able to pass on in the past the impact on margins.”
For 2022, the CEO said that RFM will probably continue to experience margin stresses even as the company plans to strengthen its warehouse and production capacity to support the increasing volume arising from better demand and new product releases.
He added that RFM parent company remains debt-free and has used its excess cash to implement share buy backs and increased dividend pay outs, on top of fully funding needed capex.
“The recent surge in COVID-19 infections is also a concern to most businesses today. We hope the infections are indeed mild although RFM is prepared for the worst. We just need everyone to be protected by vaccines and boosters,” Concepcion said.