Eastrip Adds Another KRW 3 Billion in Treasury Stock Purchases, Expands North American and Rail Businesses
TECHWORLD ·
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Eastrip announced on the 2nd that it had signed a trust contract to acquire treasury shares worth KRW 3 billion.
Including this contract, cumulative treasury stock purchases since September 2024 total KRW 6 billion, while cumulative treasury stock cancellations total KRW 4.1 billion.
The company said it plans year-end dividends of KRW 60 per share for fiscal 2024, KRW 140 per share for fiscal 2025, and KRW 160 per share for fiscal 2026.
Eastrip announced on the 2nd that it had signed a trust contract to acquire treasury shares worth KRW 3 billion. The move follows the company value enhancement plan announced in April, which included a forecast for additional share buybacks in the second half of this year. Accordingly, the company bought back another KRW 3 billion in treasury stock as previously announced.
Including this contract, Eastrip will have recorded a cumulative KRW 6 billion in treasury stock purchases since September 2024. The company has continued its shareholder return policy and is carrying out share buybacks.
It is also carrying out share cancellations in parallel. Eastrip has a plan to cancel KRW 5 billion worth of treasury stock and carried out a KRW 2.6 billion cancellation in February last year and a KRW 1.5 billion cancellation in September last year. As a result, cumulative treasury stock cancellations total KRW 4.1 billion, and the remaining cancellations are scheduled to be processed in 2027.
The company is also pushing to expand dividend payouts. Its year-end dividend is planned at KRW 60 per share for fiscal 2024, KRW 140 per share for fiscal 2025, and KRW 160 per share for fiscal 2026. The company is pursuing a shareholder return policy that combines share buybacks, cancellations, and higher dividends.
On the business side, the company is also posting results in transportation infrastructure. In North America, the expansion of its Next Gen Fare Gates business is under way, while in South Korea it won a signaling system project for the Gyeongbu High-Speed Railway. Wins and expansion in the railway sector are coming in both North America and South Korea.
At last year's annual general meeting, Eastrip approved a motion to transfer KRW 20 billion in capital reserves to retained earnings, and it also completed a revision of its articles of incorporation to introduce quarterly dividends. The dividend policy is being pursued as a tax-free capital reduction dividend.
Eastrip is expanding its presence in the North American public transportation infrastructure market through its business segment. The company installed Next Gen Fare Gates at BART, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit in the United States.
The project won five North American transportation and infrastructure awards this year. The honors included the '2026 Rail Secure Gold Award' from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), while the awarding organizations were the American Public Works Association (APWA), the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA), the Institute for Partnering Excellence (IPI), and East Bay EDA.
Eastrip said that after the introduction of High-barrier gates, crime on the entire BART network fell 41%, and the amount of time maintenance staff spent at 10 stations where vandalism had repeatedly occurred fell 96%. The company said it received awards from multiple North American transportation and infrastructure organizations based on these operating results.
The company is also advancing its fare-gate business in Washington. Regarding fare gates equipped with an AI surveillance system supplied to WMATA, the company said fare evasion fell by more than 80% after the gates were introduced.
Based on these results, Eastrip is targeting public transportation modernization projects in major North American cities. Its target cities include New York and Los Angeles.
In South Korea, it is fostering railway signaling as a new growth engine. Through its acquisition of LS Electric's railway signaling business unit, Eastrip expanded its business scope from its existing road traffic and toll collection systems into railway signaling, and the expansion direction is North American transportation infrastructure and domestic railway signaling projects. Then, on the 31st of last month, it won a sole-source project from the Korea National Railway. The project title is 'Gyeongbu High-Speed Railway: Purchase and Installation of Electronic Interlocking System Upgrades at Gwangmyeong Station and 2 Other Stations,' and the contract amount is KRW 26.5 billion. The project covers 3 stations, including Gwangmyeong, Cheonan-Asan, and Ulsan, 5 interlocking equipment rooms, and 8 intermediate equipment rooms, for a total of 16 sites. The first contract amount is about KRW 4 billion, and the project period runs through December 31, 2027.
Along with business expansion, Eastrip plans to continue shareholder return policies such as share buybacks, share cancellations, and higher dividends.
An Eastrip official said the company's continued share buybacks and cancellations since 2024 were meant to demonstrate its commitment to keeping to the schedule it promised the market, and added that based on its North American business performance and railway signaling results, it will continue a performance-based shareholder return policy and seek fair market recognition of the company's intrinsic value.
Source: TECHWORLD · Kim Seung-gi
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=406434
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Source: TECHWORLD
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