In a stock exchange filing on Thursday, the Gokongwei family-led Cebu Air Inc. declared P9.12 per share in cash dividends for holders of its convertible preferred shares (CEBCP) totaling about P2.8 billion.
Shareholders on record as of Sept. 5 will receive the payment on Oct. 1 this year.
The payout, approved by the board on Aug. 7, covers four years of cumulative dividends since the preferred shares were issued in March 2021.
Cebu Air issued these convertible preferred shares through a stock rights offering in March 2021 to help strengthen its balance sheet while operations were suspended due to rolling lockdowns.
Analysts’ view
“These are cumulative dividends since the preferred shares were issued in 2021, so definitely a welcome development and long-awaited,” said Alfred Benjamin Garcia, research head at AP Securities.
Cebu Air has yet to indicate when it will resume dividend payments for common shareholders, but the preferred payout is seen as a positive sign of recovery since the funds are drawn from its earnings surplus.
Bloomberg data showed that Cebu Air last paid out dividends to common shareholders on July 10, 2019.
Garcia said they maintain their previous buy call on Cebu Air shares, trading under the symbol CEB, with a target price of P43.88 each.
Cebu Air shares rose 0.53 percent to P38.10 each in Thursday’s morning session.
Record earnings
Cebu Air soared to a P9 billion net income in the first half of 2025, up 153 percent year-on-year, driven by record second quarter earnings and a one-time aircraft engine gain.
Even without the one-off, core profits remained strong as passenger volume hit 7 million and revenues gained across all segments.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
