The Pressure from Small Shareholders Paid Off, Koka Pays Dividend for the First Time

It seems that the pressure from small shareholders for the payment of dividends has borne fruit as Koka from Varaždin, a food poultry industry operating within the Vindija Group, has decided to pay a dividend for the first time in its history.

However, the counterproposal from small shareholders Pero Vlainić and Danijel Labaš, who requested the payment of dividends, was not formally accepted, but Vindija, as the largest individual shareholder, submitted a similar counterproposal at the General Assembly held on Friday, which was, of course, accepted.

As decided at the assembly, shareholders of this domestic food company will receive a dividend of 10 kuna per share. A total of 9.03 million kuna will be paid to shareholders as dividends, while the remaining profit of 2.09 million kuna will be allocated to retained earnings. A similar counterproposal was previously submitted by small shareholder Pero Vlainić, while another small shareholder, Danijel Labaš, requested a dividend payment of 30 kuna per share in his counterproposal.

Koka, whose shares have been listed on the stock exchange since 2003 and whose portfolio includes the well-known domestic brand Cekin, achieved business revenues of 1.28 billion kuna last year according to the accepted financial report, and ended 2020 with a net profit of 11.1 million kuna.

In accordance with this decision, the dividend will be paid on July 23, 2021, to all shareholders registered in the Central Depository & Clearing Company (SKDD) on June 25, 2021. The date until which Koka shares will be traded without the right to dividend payment is June 30, 2021.

Let us recall that Koka proposed in the call for the General Assembly that the profit earned in 2020, amounting to 11.1 million kuna, be allocated to retained earnings. The first counterproposal was submitted by small shareholder Pero Vlainić, requesting a dividend payment of 10 kuna, justifying it by stating that Koka has not paid dividends since its listing on the public stock exchange in 2003 and that the payment of dividends would not affect the company’s financial position in any way as it has continuously made a profit over the past 12 years. Namely, the total retained earnings of Koka in the balance sheet as of December 31, 2020, amount to 336.3 million kuna.

The second counterproposal was submitted by small shareholder Danijel Labaš, and according to it, the profit from 2020 and that from 2019, amounting to 15.9 million kuna, would be used for a dividend payment of 30 kuna per share.

Labaš also argued in his counterproposal that Koka has been achieving positive results for years, but that shareholders have not benefited from this during all those years. – The company obviously has excess funds since it is providing loans to the largest shareholder (Vindija, editor’s note) and related parties. According to the balance sheet as of December 31, 2020, the company reported 49 million kuna in such loans. In addition, the company had, at that date, during a time of historically low interest rates, term deposits for more than three months amounting to 34.4 million kuna – stated Labaš’s counterproposal.

In the ownership structure of Koka, Vindija dominates (95.4 percent of shares), whose owner and long-time CEO Dragutin Drk recently passed away, and he was succeeded at the helm of Vindija by trusted manager Nenad Klepač. Erste Bank holds 0.42 percent, Pero Vlainić 0.3 percent, Danijel Labaš 0.26 percent, and Podravska Bank 0.17 percent of Koka shares.