Power Assets under pressure to dole out some of its HK$40bn cash hoard in special dividend

Power Assets may pay a special dividend on top of its final dividend after it announces its annual results, potentially answering calls by shareholders to distribute part of its huge cash pile after hopes for a special payout was dashed last May.

Power Assets said in a statement on Monday that its board will consider a motion to pay a HK$5 per share special interim dividend during a meeting scheduled for January 26

But Power Assets, which has energy projects in Hong Kong, mainland China, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand may still have more than HK$40 billion cash after distributing the HK$10.67 billion special dividend and completing a 20 per cent stake purchase in Australian energy distributor Duet Group for HK$8.6 billion.

Its cash and bank deposits totalled HK$66 billion at the end of June.

Asked whether the special payout is to help secure support for the Duet acquisition from Power Assets’ minority shareholders whose consent is needed to set up the bidding consortium, Kam Hing-lam, managing director of Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), the largest shareholder of Power Assets, said: “We have long heard feedback from shareholders that they really want special dividends.”