JR Central raised its interim dividend to ¥17 a share from the ¥16 it forecast in April, and lifted its year-end forecast to ¥17. That gives a full-year ¥34, against ¥32 for the previous year. The interim payout totals ¥16.16bn, with a September 30 record date and payment effective December 1.
What the company cites
The dividend notice attributes the change to steady Tokaido Shinkansen use. The interim results are more mixed. Tokaido Shinkansen traffic was 30,238 million passenger-kilometres, level with a year earlier, while conventional lines rose 0.9% to 4,518 million and the total edged up 0.1% to 34,755 million. Company-only transport revenue rose 1.2% to ¥794.5bn, which JR Central said reflected firm business, tourist and inbound demand against a year that hosted the Osaka-Kansai Expo.
Profit moved the other way. Operating profit fell 1.5% to ¥447.2bn and net profit attributable to owners fell 3.2% to ¥288.4bn. The company raised its full-year operating profit forecast to ¥757bn from ¥702bn, though that is still 8.8% below last year.
Funding the maglev
JR Central describes stable dividends as its basic policy and says it retains internal reserves to push ahead with projects including the Chuo Shinkansen. Borrowing for the maglev line stood at ¥3tn at the end of September, unchanged from March.
A buyback alongside
The board also approved a buyback of up to 3.6 million shares, 0.38% of shares outstanding excluding treasury stock, at a ceiling of ¥10bn. Purchases would run on the Tokyo Stock Exchange from November 2 to November 30, with all acquired shares to be cancelled on December 15. These are upper limits. The company's full-year earnings-per-share forecast does not factor in the buyback.