FELCRA Bhd will be distributing RM64.75 mil in final dividend payment for 2019 to 64,397 participants nationwide in stages, beginning April 13.
Chief executive officer Mohd Nazrul Izam Mansor said the payout would complete the annual profit distribution for the year, adding that first interim dividend was paid in August 2019, second interim dividend in December 2019 and final dividend on April 2020 after the project account was closed.
“For 2019, consolidation and rehabilitation projects recorded distributable profits worth RM154.27 mil, of which RM22.42 mil has been paid during the first interim payout and RM49.14 mil in the second interim,” he said in a statement today.
Additionally, RM17.94 mil has been distributed on a monthly basis, Mohd Nazrul said.
“The profit distribution is derived from the net profits of estates of participants which are developed by FELCRA, involving 924 projects.
“Altogether, FELCRA is responsible for the management of 220,086 hectares for 112,337 participants that are involved in 1,217 projects nationwide,” he said.
He said the final dividend payout for 2019 was a 72% increase, or RM46.7 mil, from RM18.04 mil in the same period in 2018.
Mohd Nazrul Izam said the increase in the dividend for 2019 is due to FELCRA’s good management practice and postponement of the estate development debt repayment that was later credited to the participants as additional dividend payments.
Apart from that, he said better average fresh fruit bunches (FFB) prices also contributed to the increase.
“The average FFB price recorded for the September to December period is RM442 per tonne as compared to RM365 per tonne in 2018,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said FELCRA, together with the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance (MoF), is in the midst of settling payments to contractors, including those from Sarawak, that has been involved in the Hardcore Poor Housing Programme (PPRT) repair work.
“Part of the claims have been paid to contractors while the rest have been processed involving a whole chain, starting from verification of project implementations by the local authorities and FELCRA’s regional authorities, followed by documentation reviews by the Ministry of Rural Development and MoF.
He added that once verification processes are completed, FELCRA and the banks would be coordinating the payments to the contractor. – April 11, 2020, Bernama
