After shelving share buyback plan, Coal India to consider second interim dividend for FY21

• Coal India Limited has already revised its capex target for the year FY21 by 30 percent

• Earlier in November 2020, Coal India's board of directors had approved an interim dividend at a rate of Rs 7.50 per share for FY21

New Delhi: The Board of Directors of Coal India Ltd (CIL) is set to consider and approve the payment of second interim dividend for FY21 at its next meeting, the state-run coal miner informed the stock exchanges in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. "… notice is hereby given that a meeting of Board of Directors of the company will be held on Friday, the 5th Mar'21 inter-alia to consider and approve payment of 2nd Interim Dividend for 2020-21, if any," the coal PSU said in the regulatory filing.

"The Company has fixed Tuesday, 16th March' 21 as the "Record Date" for the purpose of payment of 2n Interim Dividend on Equity Shares for Financial Year 2020-21, if declared by the Board," Coal India added.

Share buyback plan shelved, say sources

PSU Watch has learnt reliably from sources in the know of the matter that the state-run coal miner has shelved its share buyback plan in view of its financial position. Coal India Limited has already revised its capex target for the year FY21 by 30 percent. On January 13, the company had said that it has scaled up its capital expenditure budget by an additional Rs 3,000 crore, revising it to Rs 13,000 crore from the previous target of Rs 10,000 crore for the ongoing fiscal.

The Centre had asked PSUs to increase their capital spending in order to provide a momentum to the economy. The Ministry of Finance and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) have been closely monitoring the performance of PSUs in meeting their capex targets for the year.

Coal India approved interim dividend of Rs 7.50 per share in Nov 2020

Earlier in November 2020, Coal India's board of directors had approved an interim dividend at a rate of Rs 7.50 per share for FY21. A Coal India executive who spoke to PSU Watch on the condition of anonymity said, "The company has already declared an interim dividend. The board is going to consider the payment of a second interim dividend. The capex target has been revised. With the demand from the power sector yet to reach pre-Covid levels, there was no room for a share buyback."

ALSO READ: Coal India ups capex budget by 30% to Rs 13,000 cr for FY'21

Coal India reported a 21.4 percent decline in its consolidated net profit year-on-year for Q3 FY21 at Rs 3,085.4 crore. The coal miner's other income in the quarter went down by 54 percent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 648.59 crore, affecting its bottomline performance. The consolidated revenue for Q3, however, rose 2.1 percent to settle at Rs 23,686 crore.

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