Petronas confident of delivering RM30b special payment to gov't

Petronas has assured it will be able to afford the RM30 billion special payment to the Pakatan Harapan government.

Group CEO Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin said today the state oil conglomerate agreed to the arrangement in the first place because it could afford it.

“We have sizeable cash reserves, a result of our prudent management over the years.

“This has allowed Petronas to declare the RM30 billion special dividend to our shareholders, as announced last year, which we will distribute in tranches throughout 2019,” he added during a speech when announcing the company’s 2018 financial performance at the Petronas Twin Towers.

The government, Petronas’ sole shareholder, had asked for the one-off dividend to help it repay RM37 billion in income tax and Goods and Services Tax refunds owed by the previous BN government. 

Dividend payments began in January this year. 

Wan Zulkiflee said he was confident that the firm will be able to fulfil this commitment on top of its usual dividend to the government, which it previously announced would be RM24 billion for 2018. 

“The dividend, yes it is RM54 billion dividend in total - RM30 billion in terms of special dividend and RM24 billion is our normal dividend.

“In terms of confidence, yes we are confident.

“Because before we made our commitment and declared these numbers, we were confident that we are in the position to pay out this dividend,” he added.

In 2017, Petronas paid a usual dividend of RM16 billion to the government. 

Petronas’ profit after tax (PAT) for the fourth quarter of 2018 fell 21 percent to RM14.3 billion when compared to last year (RM18.2 billion).

For the whole year, PAT rose 22 percent to RM55.3 billion for 2018 compared to RM45.5 billion in 2017.

For 2019, Wan Zulkiflee said that volatile oil prices were expected but maintained that Petronas’ integrated business structure and increasingly diverse portfolio will enable it to weather the uncertainties.  - Mkini