The shareholders of Sphera Franchise Group (SFG), the biggest restaurant operator listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, approved on Thursday the distribution of cash dividends worth RON 35 mln (EUR 7.1 mln) from the undistributed net profits for 2019 and 2020.

The gross dividend per share is RON 0.9021 and stands for 5% of the current share price of RON 17.95. The dividends will be paid at the end of September.

Sphera Franchise Group operates the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchises in Romania. The company also has KFC restaurants in Italy and Moldova.

The company recorded losses in 2020 as its sales dropped because of the pandemic related restrictions. However, in 2019, it reported a net profit of RON 64 mln.

The company will report its financial results for the first half of this year on August 31. However, the first quarter results already showed an improvement compared with the same period of last year.

The company’s shares have gained 22% since the beginning of this year, and their performance has been similar to that of the local blue-chip index BET.

andrei@romania-insider.com

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