Announcement Regarding Cash Dividends from Retained Earnings
Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. (the “Company”) announced today that its Board of Directors has resolved to pay a year-end cash dividend of which the record date is December 31, 2024, in the way indicated below.
The payment of the dividend is subject to the resolution at Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company to be held on March 26, 2025.
| Resolved | Immediate forecast (As of Aug.7, 2024) |
Previous year (FY ended Dec. 31, 2023) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Record date | December 31, 2024 | December 31, 2024 | December 31, 2023 |
| Dividend per share | JPY 27.0 | JPY 25.0 | JPY 65.0 |
| Total amount of dividends | JPY 40,587 million | － | JPY 32,942 million |
| Payable date | March 27, 2025 | － | March 27, 2024 |
| Source of dividends | Retained earnings | － | Retained earnings |
In its “Medium- to Long-Term Management Policy” to put into practice the group philosophy “Asahi Group Philosophy,” the Company has been working to enhance corporate value through sustainable growth and co-creation with all stakeholders, and has been increasing its capacity to invest in future growth by prioritizing the use of free cash flow generated for debt reduction. The Company achieved the guideline with a Net Debt/EBITDA(*1) ratio of 2.49x in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, which it had targeted of around 3x by 2024.
Based on this progress, the Company decided to set the dividend payout ratio(*2) of 40% for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, one year ahead of the guideline target of a dividend payout ratio of 40% by 2025, in order to use the free cash flow in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 to enhance shareholder returns. In order to realize this policy, the year-end dividend for the current fiscal year will be JPY 27.0 per share, an upward revision of the dividend forecast disclosed in August 2024, taking into account consolidated financial conditions and other factors.
- (*1) Net Debt/EBITDA (EBITDA net debt equity ratio) = (Interest-bearing debt - Cash ) / EBITDA
* After deducting 50% of outstanding subordinated debt from net debt. - (*2) The dividend payout ratio is calculated by deducting the one-time gains and losses (net of tax ), such as business portfolio restructuring and impairment losses, from profit attributable to owners of parent.