The company that paid more than 8x profits in dividends in the last 3 years

Source: Alamy

It is often the case that accounting results are a work of fiction.

Take the NZX-listed company which has reported a total of $80 million in net profits in the last three years ended June, but has still managed to pay shareholders $549.4 million in dividends.

The downside has been that only the first-half dividend for the six months ended December 2021 was fully franked, and there were no imputation credits attached to the other five payouts, so investors would have had to pay tax on them.

The company is promising to pay out even more in the current year, but both the first-half and final dividends are expected to be un-imputed.

On the current number of shares on issue, this year's dividends would cost the company another $249.5 million.