Despite a second year of decline in profits, Bolloré Africa Logistics Côte d'Ivoire wants to distribute dividends to shareholders for the 2019 financial year. A decision that will compensate part of the loss per share that the company is experiencing this year on the BRVM.

Bolloré Africa Logistics Côte d'Ivoire plans to distribute a gross dividend of CFAF 5.4 billion on behalf of the 2019 financial year.

This proposal is one of the resolutions submitted to the vote of the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting scheduled for November 17, 2020. It is likely to pass, because a single group (Bolloré) directly and indirectly controls more than 70% of the capital of this company.

The decision should also appeal to people who are shareholders of the rest of the company's 20.08 percent, according to market data. They will thus share a gross dividend of just over CFAF 1.88 billion. This should delight investors.

On the BRVM, Bolloré Africa Logistics CI shares were down 17% since the beginning of 2020 on 2 November. The company also has reservations. Despite this distribution of dividends, its carry-over is again just over 9 billion FCFA.

However, we can question this decision to remunerate shareholders, while in 2019, net profit was down for the second consecutive year since 2017. At the same time, the year 2020 does not look any better.

With the coronavirus, the segment of business that depends on the air transport sector has taken a hit due to the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The re-confinement that is being reported in several partner countries of Côte d'Ivoire does not help matters.

Recall that at the end of the first 9 months of the current year, the net profit stood at 10.7 billion FCFA up 1.5% compared to that of the same period in 2019. But this net margin was supported by dividends received within the subsidiaries.

Upstream of the income statement, we find a turnover of 61.2 billion FCFA which is down 5.8% compared to that of the same period in 2019.