State Trading Organization, STO will be paying the highest dividends to the shareholders this year as well, compared to all other publicly listed companies in Maldives.
STO’s board passed to distribute 51 Rufiyaa per share. This is a record level for this year. No public company has passed to distribute this much. MTCC the company which has the most number of public shareholders decided to distribute only 24 Rufiyaa per share. BML is distributing 20 Rufiyaa per share while Dhiraagu is distributing 14 Rufiyaa twice a year.
STO spent 279 million Rufiyaa as cost saving, on the people. Even after spending this money STO made 288 million Rufiyaa as profit. STO made a record profit of 567 million Rufiyaa last year.
Managing Director of STO, Ahmed Shaheer said that STO always aims to make a reasonable profit for the shareholders. Government is the main shareholder of STO and increase in profits will benefit the government.
However, speaking at the ceremony held to mark the 50thanniversary of STO, President Abdullah Yameen said that he does not want state owned companies to make huge profits but to provide quality services to the people.