DFI Retail Group Holdings announced a special dividend of 44.30 US cents (56.75 cents) per share, the first in 18 years, in its 1HFY2025 results ended June 30, 2025.
This bumper payout is on top of an interim dividend of 3.5 US cents.
The group reported an underlying profit attributable to shareholders of US$105 million ($134.51 million), up 39% y-o-y for 1HFY2025. However, for overall earnings, the group reported a loss of $38 million for 1HFY2025, down from the $95 million earnings reported in the same period a year ago.
DFI Retail says that the use of underlying profit is to distinguish between ongoing business performance and non-trading items.
The y-o-y growth is supported by an improved health & beauty and food profitability, higher contribution from associates, and a stabilising revenue growth trend. This was also supported by reducing financing costs.
Total revenue from its subsidiaries for 1HFY2025 was up 0.3% y-o-y on a like-for-like basis, excluding the impact of a significant cigarette tax increase in Hong Kong and the divestment of the Hero Supermarket business in Indonesia in 2024.
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Sales for health & beauty were up 4% y-o-y on a like-for-like basis, and total convenience sales were down 4% y-o-y on a like-for-like basis primarily due to reduced volumes of lower-margin cigarettes following tax increases in Hong Kong at the end of February 2024.
Revenue for the food division reduced marginally, while sales performance of the home furnishings division remained challenged due to intense competition and shifts in basket mix.
During the reporting period, DFI Retail completed the divestment of minority stakes in both Yonghui and Robinsons Retail, generating total gross proceeds of approximately US$900 million. It also announced the divestment of its Singapore Food business for approximately US$93 million in cash consideration.
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The “strategic progress” of these developments has resulted in the board declaring a special dividend of 44.30 US cents per share, equivalent to a US$600 million total payment. The group has also declared an interim dividend of 3.50 US cents per share, in line with the prior comparable period.
Free cash flow for the period was a net inflow of US$89 million, compared with US$61 million in the first half of 2024. As at June 30, 2025, the group’s net cash was US$442 million, compared to US$468 million net debt at Dec 31, 2024.
DFI Retail Group restates its full-year organic revenue growth outlook to a range of 0.5% to 1.0% (from approximately 2%), reflecting broader economic uncertainty and a sharper-than-expected decline in cigarette sales.
It has revised its full-year guidance of underlying profit attributable to shareholders to be between US$250 million and US$270 million (up from previously between US$230 million and US$270 million).
Shares in DFI Retail Group closed 3 cents higher or 0.958% up at $3.16 on July 22.
