Saudi Aramco maintained its promised dividend payouts for the first quarter of 2020 despite a 25% fall in net profit. The world’s largest oil company said it paid total dividends of $13.4 billion in Q4 2019 and would distribute $18.75 billion dividends in Q1 2020, in line with its plan to pay $75 billion dividend this year.
Previously, some analysts estimated that Aramco would cut its dividend to the Saudi government while keeping payouts to minority shareholders to ease its financial constraints due to plunging oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some analysts also believed that the share of dividend to the Saudi government would be reduced in the next quarter. Aramco did not detail its future dividend plans.
Aramco reported that net profit after zakat and tax for the January-March period fell 25% from SAR83.29 billion a year earlier to SAR62.48 billion ($16.64 billion), lower than analyst estimates of a $17.8 billion profit. Meanwhile, operating cash flows dropped to $22.4 billion in Q1 2020 from $24.5 billion in Q1 2019.
