NV George sold 1.5 cr shares since FY17; holding now at 8.1pc
KOCHI: Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), one of the busiest airports in the country, and a living testimony to the commercial success of private-public partnership (PPP) in the state, has reported a 26 per cent growth in its net profit to Rs215.12 crore for 2019-20 (FY20), compared with Rs170 crore a year ago.
The CIAL board has proposed a cash dividend of 27 per cent on a paid-up share capital of Rs382.57 crore, amounting to a pay-out of Rs103.3 crore. The dividend income to the largest shareholder in CIAL, Kerala Government with 32.42 per cent holding, will work out Rs32.97 crore, once ratified by the shareholders.
Importantly, the holding in the company of the once-second-largest shareholder in CIAL, after the State Government, NV George, has further dropped from 8.82 per cent to 8.10 per cent after he sold 27.36 lakh shares during the year through several tranches.
George, one of the founding directors of the best-run airport in the state, and world’s lone airport operated on solar energy generated ‘in-house’, has sold off about 1.5 crore shares during the past three years bringing down his stake from 11.97 per cent to 8.10 per cent thus reducing him to the third largest shareholder after the government and MA Yusaffali in the first two places.
Total income
The performance of CIAL during FY20 was almost the same as in the previous year at the top line with a revenue of Rs655.05 crore, a tad higher than the previous year at Rs650.34 crore.
During FY 2019-20, the company earned an operating profit of Rs423.85 crores as against Rs398.63 crore in the previous year 2018-19, registering a growth rate of 6.33 per cent.
The difference in bottom lines between the two periods can be attributed to the provision for tax, which was at Rs32.71 crore for FY20 compared with Rs76.18 crore in the earlier year.
“Since the resumption of domestic operations on May 25, 2020, after the lock-down, demand has been weaker than expected, with the industry achieving a load factor of around just 55 per cent in Q1 and even with the capacity limited to 30 per cent of the fleet,” a CIAL statement noted.
