Australia-listed slot machine maker and online gaming content provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd says it expects its next annual dividend – for fiscal year 2024 – “to be unfranked due to the growth in business outside of Australia”.
The Thursday announcement was made in a filling to the Australian Securities Exchange.
The firm had declared a fully-franked dividend of AUD0.34 (US$0.23) per share for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, in the aggregate amount of AUD220.4 million.
Fully-franked dividends are ones where the whole amount of the dividend carries a franking credit. This means the company has paid 100 percent of the tax on the dividend, and shareholders are able to take that as an offset against their own tax liability.
Aristocrat is scheduled to announce on November 13 its results for the fiscal year ending September 30.
The firm reported revenue of just under AUD3.27 billion for its financial first half, up 6.1 percent from the prior-year period, it said in May. Aristocrat had an interim profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles (NPATA) of AUD752.1 million, an 8.6-percent increase from a year before.
At the time, the firm declared an interim fully-franked dividend of AUD0.36.
The gaming supplier had already previously indicated that future dividends were unlikely to be fully-franked. In its announcement on Thursday, it said determination of the final dividend for the fiscal year ending September 30 was still subject to board approval.
“Aristocrat continues to focus on disciplined capital allocation to maximise shareholder returns,” the firm stated, adding that “on-market share buy-backs remain an important part of this strategy”.
As part of an ongoing on-market share buyback programme, Aristocrat has purchased 40.2 million shares at an average price of AUD39.56 per share, for a total consideration of approximately AUD1.6 billion, it said.
