Shareholder returns/dividends
Shareholder Return Policy
Nippon Shokubai regards the distribution of profits to shareholders as its most important management issue, and its basic policy is to provide stable profit distribution with overall consideration its business expansion and strengthening of the corporate structure to enhance corporate value. We aim to raise the level of dividends over the medium to long term while taking into consideration the dividend payout ratio and other factors, and share buybacks to increase the value per share are also an option.
To achieve the vision for 2030 set forth in our long-term vision “TechnoAmenity for the future,” we have concluded that it is essential to accelerate the three transformations currently pursuing (Business Transformation, Strategic Transformation for Environmental Initiatives, and Organizational Transformation), as well as to shift to a financial strategy that places even greater emphasis on capital efficiency and optimize the leverage level. In addition, we have set a new target to reduce the shareholders’ equity ratio to around 60% by the end of FY2027.
To meet the target, we have revised the shareholder return policy for the four years through the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028, as follows, in order to further increase and stabilize shareholder returns with securing sufficient financial resources to invest in growth and maintain competitiveness, while limiting the further buildup of shareholder equity.
For the four-year period from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, to the fiscal year ending March 31, 2028, the Company will pay dividends with a payout ratio of 100% or a dividend on equity ratio (DOE) of 2.0% as a guide, whichever is greater. In addition, the Company plans to buy back approximately 20 billion yen of its own shares over the four-year period.
Dividend Information
| Year ended March 2022 | Year ended March 2023 | Year ended March 2024 (scheduled) |
Year ended March 2025 (forecast) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interim dividend (JPY) | 20.00 | 22.50 | 22.50 | 35.00 |
| Year-end dividend (JPY) | 25.00 | 22.50 | 22.50 | 35.00 |
| Annual dividend (JPY) | 45.00 | 45.00 | 45.00 | 70.00 |
| Payout ratio (%) | 30.3 | 36.9 | 63.9 | 101.8 |
| Dividend on equity ratio (%) | 2.2 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 2.8 |
| Total return ratio (%) | 30.3 | 52.2 | 99.7 | 148.9 |
On April 1, 2024, Nippon Shokubai conducted a stock split of in which each share of common stock was split for 4 shares. The amounts of dividend for fiscal year ended March 2024 and prior years have been calculated assuming that the stock split was conducted.