The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Druk Holding and Investment (DHI) held its Annual Press conference on Friday at the capital. The Chief Executive Officer of DHI and the Directors and representatives of the 12 DHI Companies also launched their annual reports and presented summary on the performance of their respective company.
“Such Annual Press Conference is hosted so that DHI can share to the general public, who are our true shareholders on the progress of the companies as DHI is accountable to every citizen in the country. DHI is indebted to His Majesty for gracing the DHI celebrations (on 10th year) and providing us with encouragement to continue our journey next decade and beyond,” said Dasho Karma Yezer Raydi, CEO of DHI.
DHI has earned an income of Nu 7.922 bn in 2017 as compared to 7.385 bn in 2016 which is a growth of 7.27 percent as compared to 17 percent growth in 2016. The 7.27 growth rate is attributed to increase in dividend remittances of BPCL, BTL, BOBL, and PCAL.
However, since 85 percent of DHI’s dividends were from DGPC and BPC last year, it has been observed that there has been a slight decrease of 4.29 percent in the generation of electricity from the Tala, Chhukha, Kurichhu and Basochhu Hydropower plants with 7,248.918 million units generated in 2017 as compared to 7,573.841million units generated in 2016.
Dividend from DGPC to the company decreased marginally by Nu 111.01M or 2% in 2017. According to the management of DGPC, the decrease in the generation of electricity was due to lower hydrological flows mainly in the Wangchhu
There was also decrease in construction contracts, which reduced the profit earnings of BPC by close to 16 percent.
After a decade of establishment of the company, DHI increased the Group’s (consolidated) net worth to Nu 88.712 bn from Nu 22.253 bn in the FY 2008, a compounded annual growth rate of 14 percent. The Group’s total asset increased to Nu. 172.949 bn from Nu 51.091 bn in FY 2008 at 16.20 percent compounded annual growth rate.
According to the company’s annual report, DHI’s ever increasing contribution to Ministry of Finance stands at a total of Nu 6.364 bn of which dividend amounted to Nu 4.038 bn and total tax of Nu 2.326 bn up from Nu 2.110 bn in FY 2008.
DHI’s total assets grew by 4.05 percent which was primarily due to increase in investment by 3.12% or Nu 1.543 bn. The investment is said to have increased due to allotment of DGPC’s shares worth Nu 832.82 mn injected by the Government of India in Kholongchhu Hydro Energy Limited to DHI, injection of fresh equity into SMCL, CDCL, TTPL and increase in the market capitalization of RICBL stock by Nu. 419.84 mn. The Company’s net worth also increased by 4.85%.
The total expenditure of DHI for FY 2017 also grew by 27.63% which was due to liquidating Koufuku International Limited’s (KIL) loan to BOBL, and BDBL as per the guarantees provided by DHI. KIL is a dairy processing plant established in Trashigang. It is a FDI joint venture company between DHI and Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Limited, Japan.
Even with the increase in the expenditure the, Profit After Tax (PAT) was not as affected and stood at 7.05%.
As per the reports of the other DHI companies, Natural Resources and Development Corporation Limited’s operating cost improved by close to 45 percent and at the same time NRDCL also managed to reduce and stabilize the price of timber and sands.
The State Mining Corporation Limited was given a special commendation and mention during the Press conference as the new top company in terms of return on equity, whereby the company also declared a dividend of 11% of its share capital just within two years of its operation. In regard to the return on DHI’s portion fund invested, PCAL was second highest at 15.92%.
After introduction of the Minimum Lending Rate, 17,400 individuals, groups, agencies have been benefitted just by BOB’s but its growth in interest income was affected. BOB however, maintained a bottom line figure of Nu 707.52 mn profit.
The Thimphu Tech Park registered a profit of Nu 17.24 mn against Nu 5 mn in 2016.
Construction Development Corporation Limited was lauded as the first Bhutanese construction company to enter hydro power plant construction and the fact that it maintains 100 percent national workforce in all its projects was also spelt out.
STCBL had a net profit of Nu 81.29 mn, which is an increase of 4.65% in FY 2016.
Bhutan Telecom has been registered as the second highest return on equity and its shareholder’s return was the highest in 2017. Drukair has been registered as the best performance improvement last year and after a gap of five years the company also declared dividend of Nu 108 mn.
“To diversify our portfolio, DHI carried out a feasibility study to set up online gaming business. The study report has been shared with Bhutan Lottery Limited for online gaming to be either taken up by them or DHI,” states the report.
To celebrate DHI’s completion of a decade into existence, DHI also developed Bhutan Future Fund Policy and the fund was set up a principle transfer of Nu 300 mn which will help in fulfilling the dual mandate of supporting the cash flow needs of the government and creating value through new investments.
