Gradus

Poultry producer Gradus’ (GR6 BU) management proposed interim DPS of BGN 0.022, the Company announced in a filing to the BSE. Gradus will distribute to shareholders BGN 5.4m or 89% of H1’19 holding company’s net profit. Shareholders will vote the proposal on 25th Oct’19.

As a result, on a TTM basis, Gradus will have distributed BGN 0.122, which is 3.4% higher than the forecast of ELANA Trading analysts. This yields 7.16% at current quotes and 6.78% at the IPO price.

Approx. 6% dividend yield from Gradus 2018 profit

Back in June, Gradus’ shareholders approved gross DPS of BGN 0.10 for FY2018, DIVY 5.56%, the Company announced in a filing to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE). The Company has distributed BGN 24.4m from its FY2018 net profit (91.2% payout ratio), which entailed gross BGN 0.10 per share. The latter yielded 5.56%.

In addition, Gradus disclosed that one of the two majority shareholders, Ivan Angelov, who has a 41% stake in the Company, donated 49.6 million shares (or 20.36% of all outstanding shares) to his son Angel Angelov.

Gradus latest financial results

Gradus’ consolidated bottom line surged 21.4% y/y as hatching eggs sales surged in H1’19, according to consolidated interim financials published by the Company. During the first six months of the year, Gradus delivered BGN 86.5m in sales revenue, up 34.3% y/y, the growth being mainly driven by 31.1% y/y increase in hatching eggs segment sales, 2.4x higher y/y grain sales. Sales of meat and meat products marked a slight improvement of 2.7% y/y to BGN 34.1m. In terms of markets, the Group doubled its exports to third countries (BGN 33.9m in H1’19) as grain sales there almost tripled and sales of hatching eggs added 40% y/y. Local sales grew by 15% y/y to BGN 41.8m thanks to surge in demand for hatching eggs. European sales, however, dropped 3% y/y to BGN 10.8m due to lower sales of 1-dayold chickens in the region. Still, hatching eggs sales in Europe advanced, almost tripling in H1’19.