Interestingly, I was just doing some calculations on the scrip dividend.
Total issued share capital (less treasury shares) = 88,059,117 shares
Interim dividend was 2 cents/share, so this means $1,761,182.34 to be paid out. Each scrip share costs $0.83, so theoretically a maximum of 2,121,906 shares should be issued if everyone chose scrip.
In reality, just 970,857 new shares were issued. Of this amount, it should be noted that Kuah Kok Kim was issued 550,843 shares (based on his total stake, which means he chose 100% scrip), and Kuah Boon Wee was alloted 38,024 shares (also 100% scrip). Stripping these 2 out, this means just 381,990 scrip shares were issued. This represents just
18% of the theoretical 2,121,906 shares which could be issued!
So my conclusion is that most of the retail shareholders did not choose scrip dividend, but instead opted for cash. The total shares alloted under scrip was just 45% (970,857 divided by 2,121,906); which implies more than half the shareholders chose cash instead. So the Company has to cough up $955,370 for the shareholders who chose cash over scrip. This represents a savings of about $805,811 for the Company, as compared to if the dividend was purely in cash.
Just food for thought.
P.S. - I chose to accept 100% scrip for my interim dividend.