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Mauritius-based conglomerate ENL Limited has moved to reward all its shareholders with an interim dividend of MUR131.25 million ($3.03 million), payable on Dec. 31.
Shares in the conglomerate on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius closed at MUR22.95 ($0.5304) per share, unchanged from its opening price this morning, as buying and selling pressure from the bulls and the bears were evenly balanced during the day’s trading session.
The decision to reward investors comes after the board ordered the payment of an interim dividend of MUR0.35 per share on all the group’s listed 374,996,000 ordinary shares, which translates to a total payout of MUR131.25 million ($3.03 million).
The dividend payout on Dec. 31 will see ENL CEO Hector Espitalier-Noel pocket MUR13.02 million ($300,540) from the distribution.
The interim-dividend announcement comes at a time when the conglomerate has yet to finalize its audited accounts due to delays encountered by one of its operating subsidiaries.
THe development has also impacted the completion and subsequent publication of its interim (quarterly) report for the period ending Sept. 30 due to the statutory delay.
Investors and capital market observers expect the board to finalize and submit its abridged audited financial statements and its quarterly filings for the period ending Sept. 30 by Dec. 31.
In its most recent filings, the Mauritian conglomerate reported a 23-percent decline in revenues from MUR12.17 billion ($286.44 million) in the nine months ending in March 2020 to MUR9.40 billion ($220.70 million) in the nine months ending in March 2021.
Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted operations across all its business segments except for logistics, caused the group to incur losses after tax of MUR1.30 billion ($30.60 million), driven by a MUR1.60-billion ($37.65 million) loss suffered from hospitality-sector operations.
ENL is a broad-based conglomerate developing and managing a diverse portfolio of more than 120 international and homegrown brands in the agro-allied, real estate, hospitality, logistics, fintech, commerce and industrial sectors.
The Mauritius-based group is controlled by the affluent Espitalier-Noel family, who hold a substantial ownership interest in addition to core governance roles.
Espitalier-Noel holds a beneficial stake amounting to 9.92 percent in the leading conglomerate.
