Fertiglobe shareholders approve $340m dividend for second half of 2021

The total payout approved during the company’s AGM is above the original guidance of at least $240m

A Fertiglobe plant. The company raised about $795m in its initial public offering last year. Photo: Fertiglobe

Shareholders of Fertiglobe, the world’s largest seaborne exporter of urea and ammonia, approved its first post-listing dividend of $340 million for the six months ended December 2021, after the company posted a record profit last year on higher product selling prices.

The dividend was calculated at 15 fils per share.

The total payout approved during the company’s annual general meeting this week is well above the original guidance of at least $240m, Fertiglobe said in a statement on Tuesday to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.

“Since inception in 2019, Fertiglobe has achieved a multitude of commercial, operational, organisational and strategic milestones, including its landmark IPO [initial public offering] in October 2021 — the first listing of a free zone company on an onshore stock exchange in the UAE and, at the time, the third largest-ever IPO on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, chairman of Fertiglobe.

“We have every confidence in Fertiglobe’s future growth potential … with our vast range of projects in Abu Dhabi and Egypt through which we are moving fast in delivering on low or no-carbon ammonia production, we are clearly demonstrating the UAE’s vision for a sustainable future,” said Dr Al Jaber, who is also Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Adnoc managing director and group chief executive.

Fertiglobe, a joint venture between Adnoc and Netherlands-listed OCI, raised about $795m in its IPO last year, amid strong demand from international, regional and local investors.

The company’s output capacity comprises 6.7 million tonnes of urea and ammonia, produced at four units in the UAE, Egypt and Algeria, making it the largest producer of nitrogen fertilisers in the Mena region.

It employs more than 2,600 people and the company is incorporated in the Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Last year, Fertiglobe reported a more than ninefold jump in its full-year profit to $703m as revenue more than doubled to $3.31bn.

In the first quarter of 2022, the company's net profit surged more than threefold to about $467m, driven by increased selling prices across the company's product line. Revenue increased more than twofold to $1.2bn.

The company’s management expects a dividend payment of at least $700m for the first half of this year (payable in October) compared to previous guidance of at least $200m, “in light of continued favourable market dynamics and resulting free cash flows, and in line with the company’s dividend policy of distributing excess free cash flows to shareholders”, it said.

In March, Fertiglobe was announced as a founding constituent of the FTSE ADX 15 Index (FADX 15), launched by ADX in partnership with FTSE Russell.

The FADX 15 benchmark index includes the largest and most liquid 15 companies on the ADX.

Fertiglobe is also set to be included in the FTSE Emerging Markets Index later this month, according to the statement.