Telecom giant Airtel Uganda has announced a final dividend of Shs86 billion ($22 million) after reporting a decline of 9.6 percent in profit for the year ended December 2023.
Airtel Uganda early this week released its annual financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2023. This is the first such release since the telecommunications company went public in November 2023.
Worthy to note, in the four months since its Initial Public Offering (IPO), the company’s share price has slipped by 13%, moving from its peak value of UGX 100 per share recorded on November 7 to sit presently at UGX 87 per share.
The new dividend adds to the earlier interim of US$ 76 billion ($19.45 million) that was declared and paid soon after the company went public through an initial public offering (IPO) in November last year.
The telco will now have paid a total of Ush162 billion ($41.47 million) in its life as a publicly listed entity.
Revenue showed a 12% year-on-year increase in 2023 from 2022, reaching UGX 1.78 Trillion. This, however, falls significantly short of the anticipated revenue cited in their IPO prospectus, translating to a UGX 80 billion shortfall. The IPO forecasted revenue nearing UGX 1.86 Trillion as of December 31, 2023.
The Profit After Tax witnessed a decline of about 9%, sliding from UGX 325 billion in 2022 down to roughly UGX 296 billion in 2023.
