Dividend Payout (Year-end Dividend) and Dividend Forecast for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2017
SoftBank Group Corp. (“SBG”) announces that today its Board of Directors resolved to submit the following proposal regarding dividend from surplus, which applies to SBG shareholders of record on March 31, 2016, to the 36th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled on June 22, 2016. The Board also decided the dividend forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2017.
1. Dividend for the fiscal year ended March 2016
(1) Details of resolution
| Fiscal Year Ended March 2016 |
Reference:
Fiscal Year Ended March 2015 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year-end | Interim (Actual) | Year-end | Interim | ||
| Dividend Resolved to be Distributed |
Latest Forecast
(announced on May 11, 2015) | ||||
| Record date | March 31, 2016 | Same as on the left | September 30, 2015 | March 31, 2015 | September 30, 2014 |
| Dividend per share | JPY 21.00 | JPY 20.00 | JPY 20.00 | JPY 20.00 | JPY 20.00 |
| Total cash dividend | JPY 24,085 million | - | JPY 23,477 million | JPY 23,784 million | JPY 23,778 million |
| Payable date | June 23, 2016 | - | December 14, 2015 | June 22, 2015 | December 15, 2014 |
| Dividend resource | Retained earnings | - | Retained earnings | Retained earnings | |
| (Reference) | |||||
| Total number of shares issued (excl. treasury stock) | 1,146,900,167 | - | 1,173,855,097 | 1,189,197,090 | 1,188,896,131 |
| Annual dividend per share | JPY 41.00 (planned) | JPY 40.00 | |||
| Total annual cash dividend | JPY 47,562million (planned) | JPY 47,562 million | |||
The total amounts of cash dividend are rounded off to the nearest million yen.
(2) Background of the resolution
SBG has proactively repurchased its own shares in the fiscal year ended March 2016 (“this fiscal year”), in an effort to return its profit to shareholders. In addition to the repurchase of 15,795,000 shares pursuant to the Board resolution made in August 2015, SBG has also repurchased 27,071,800 shares by the end of March 2016, pursuant to the Board resolution made in February 2016 (collectively, the “Share Repurchase”).
Resulting mainly from the Share Repurchase, the total number of shares issued (excluding treasury stock) as of March 31, 2016 decreased 3.6% from March 31, 2015. Nevertheless, for the purpose of making the total amount of annual cash dividend for this fiscal year equivalent to that for the fiscal year ended March 2015 (the “previous fiscal year”), the Board of Directors resolved to propose the year-end dividend for this fiscal year of JPY 21 per share, an increase of JPY 1 from JPY 20 of the year-end dividend for the previous fiscal year. Together with the interim dividend of JPY 20, this brings annual dividend for this fiscal year to JPY 41 per share, an increase of JPY 1 from the previous fiscal year.
SBG intends to substantially enhance the return of its profit to shareholders by the increase of dividend, as well as the Share Repurchase.
2. Dividend forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2017
The Board decided the forecast of the annual dividend for the fiscal year ending March 2017 to be JPY 44 per share, an increase of JPY 3 from this fiscal year. The Board intends to maintain the total amount of annual cash dividend, for the same purpose as this fiscal year, despite the expected decrease of the total number of shares issued (excluding treasury stock) along with the progress of the share repurchase.
Reference: Breakdown of Annual Dividend
| Dividend per Share | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Record Date | Interim | Year-end | Total |
| Fiscal year ending March 2017 (forecast) | JPY 22.00 | JPY 22.00 | JPY 44.00 |
| Fiscal year ended March 2016 (actual and plan) | JPY 20.00 |
JPY 21.00
(planned) |
JPY 41.00
(planned) |
| Fiscal year ended March 2015 (actual) | JPY 20.00 | JPY 20.00 | JPY 40.00 |
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