Semirara Mining and Power Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has approved the declaration of a special cash dividend amounting to P10.6 billion, equivalent to P2.50 per outstanding common share.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its shareholders on record as of Oct. 29, 2024, will be eligible to the special cash dividend. The ex-dividend date is set on October 28, 2024, while payment will be made on November 14, 2024.

Last April, the company paid out P14.88 billion or P3.50 per common share in regular and special dividends. 

With this additional special cash dividend, the total dividend payout of SMPC to its shareholders for 2024 will reach P25.50 billion. 

This translates to 91 percent payout, well above the company’s dividend policy of paying out at least 20 percent of previous year’s reported net income.

Semirara’s total annual dividend of P6.00 per share translates to a cash dividend yield of almost 18 percent based on its October 15, 2024, closing price of P34.00.

The firm is planning to expand its coal mining operations in Semirara Island, Antique with an investment of P291 billion. This involves the expansion of its existing mine sites, Narra and Molave, as well as the development a new site called Acacia.

The proposed expansion was made due to the discovery of additional coal resource and reserve of 90 million metric tons and 72 million MT, respectively from the Acacia pit.

SMPC said Acacia passed technical and economic criteria, but preparatory and site development should be in place prior to mining to prevent controlling sea water intrusion by employing a sea barrier.

The firm is also looking into the revival of its 700-megawatt Saint Raphael power project in Batangas that will likely require an investment of about $1.4 billion.

SMPC President and COO Maria Cristina C. Gotianun said the project will depend on the completion of a transmission facility expansion that will support the wheeling of capacity of new plants in the southern part of the Luzon grid.

She emphasized that if the company will go ahead with the project without the assurance of a grid capacity reinforcement, their generation may not also add to much-needed supply for Luzon, “because we would not be able to transmit that capacity.”

Gotianun qualified that the expansion and upgrade of the transmission network within the Batangas corridor are already included in the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) that the DOE approved, so “we will just need to wait for its implementation and completion.”

She added “there’s really a need for another line, because (the existing transmission facility) is overloaded – and that even causes the tripping of our plants at times.”