At the share price before the announcement, the EUR 6 DPS from the dividend counter-proposal would amount to a dividend yield is 11.7%. The ex-date is set for 2 January 2024 and 4 January 2024 as the payment date.

Telekom Slovenije’s Management Board in cooperation with the Supervisory Board issued a proposal for the distribution of profit from 2022. The Group proposed profit for 2022 in the amount of EUR 40.3m to remain undistributed as retained earnings. In other words, the Group proposed no dividend payment.

However, just a few hours later, Group received a dividend counterproposal. Small Shareholders’ Association of Slovenia (Društvo MDS) proposed a dividend payment of EUR 6, which would amount to a dividend yield of 11.7% at the price when the dividend was proposed.

The explanation of a counterproposal is based on the public promise of the management and the supervisory board of Telekom Slovenije to distribute dividends in 2024 for the year 2022. The counterproposal sets the pre-determined date and the date of payment in 2025 in accordance with the previously cited public promise. It is emphasized that with this dividend proposal, the business of Telekom Slovenije is not endangered in any way, because with this dividend proposal, the Group would not cause the obligation to return state aid received for energy producers. The base for this counterproposal is highlighted in the following sentence: “Shareholder participation in profits is one of the basic corporate rights. the right to participate in the profit is a fundamental property right that a shareholder has and also the most important reason for a shareholder to be a shareholder in the first place.”

The counterproposal also suggests 2 January 2024 as the ex-date and 4 January 2024 as the payment date.

The proposal is subject to approval by the General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held on 16 June 2023. Below we provide you with the historical dividends per share and dividend yield of the Company. We note that the counterproposal was approved in the previous year, and was submitted by the same shareholder.

Telekom Slovenije Dividend per Share (EUR) and Dividend Yield (%) (2010 – 2023)

Source: LJSE, InterCapital Research