Eppley fund makes more dividend payments

The Eppley Caribbean Property Fund Limited (ECPF) will be rewarding its investors with more frequently distributed dividend payments. This was announced by the ECPF this week, as the fund which is listed on the Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE) announced it would make payments to investors each quarter of the financial year.

“ECPF’s dividend policy remained to effectively distribute all the operating cash flow it receives from its regional real estate portfolio to its shareholders annually.

This change now means that shareholders will receive their share of this operating cash flow in more frequent quarterly distributions,” Nicholas Scott, director of Eppley Caribbean Property Fund informed in the notice.

Eppley Caribbean Property Fund’s net profit attributable to shareholders grew significantly in 2021 by 204 per cent to BDS$5.7 million, the highest in its history.

The Fund’s director disclosed that its performance year-to-date “continues to build on the momentum of last year’s record profitability, generating $4 million in net earnings based on unaudited results for the six months ended March 31, 2022”.

That half-year performance represented a 148 per cent increase in net earnings relative to the same period in 2021. According to Scott, the strength of the fund’s operations and quality of its assets remain the basis for the consistent growth in performance.

In this connection, it was noted that the fund’s net operating income attributable to shareholders grew by 34 per cent to reach $2.5 million.

“Funds from operations attributable to shareholders, a measure of the fund’s core operating profitability factoring in finance costs, grew 20 per cent to $2 million over the six-month period,” the financial institution disclosed in the public filing which was described as a material information disclosure notice.

In addition, the board of directors of the fund indicated it has approved an ordinary dividend of $0.15 per share to shareholders. This payment would bring the total ordinary dividend paid to shareholders to $1.75 per share since the financial year ended on September 30, 2021. (IMC1)