According to a report by the board of directors at FPT Online JSC’s (stock code: FOC) annual general meeting on Thursday, total revenue in 2018 reached VND538 billion ($23.03 million), and pre-tax profit was VND315 billion ($13.49 million).

This represented an increase of 3.46 percent and 0.6 percent respectively over the previous year earlier, respectively.

With these results, the board has received shareholder approval for a cash dividend of VND13,000 (56 cents) per share, equivalent to 130 percent of an FOC share’s nominal value.

This represents an approximate 10 percent yield, given FOC’s current trading value, which closed at VND134,600 ($5.76) at the end of Thursday’s trading session. 

This dividend exceeded FPT Online’s target set at last year’s AGM by nearly four times, and is the highest in the last four years. Between 2015 and 2017, the company had paid VND5,000 (21 cents) or VND6,000 per share (26 cents), equivalent to 50-60 percent of its nominal value. 

The dividends will be fully paid by the second quarter of 2019, the company has said.

FPT Online publishes online newspapers VnExpress, Ngoi Sao and iOne in Vietnamese and VnExpress International in English.

The company’s board said that in 2018, it had constantly set new goals to meet growing demand of the news industry. It had worked to give a more synthesized and complete coverage of events, preventing fragmentation of information. 

With over 40 million readers and 4 million comments published on the site last year, VnExpress continues to be the most read online Vietnamese newspaper in the country.

Setting the direction for 2019, the board of directors said that the company will continue to pursue growth in key competencies such as digital media and digital advertising. 

Revenue this year is expected to reach VND580 billion ($24.82 million), an increase of 8 percent year-on-year, with profit before tax up 2 percent to VND320 billion ($13.69 million). 

Ending the trading session on Thursday afternoon, FOC shares on the stock market rose by nearly 8 percent. The market capitalization of the company on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange is currently VND1.84 trillion ($78.74 million).