The Bašumi Trust, established by PepsiCo South Africa has paid beneficiaries an annual dividend of R1908.35 each as part of its B-BBEE employee share ownership scheme totalling: R20 175 076.20.
Thanks to PepsiCo Inc.’s (NASDAQ:PEP) strong annual earnings results announced today in Purchase, New York and positive share performance over the past year, the Trust was able to pay a larger-than-anticipated annual dividend to the approximately 10,500 South African beneficiaries. According to the rules of the Trust, the payment is equal to 50 percent of the dividends received from PepsiCo Inc. for the four quarters of 2022.
The Bašumi Trust was established in 2021 and forms part of the Public Interest Commitments made to the South African Government at the time of PepsiCo’s acquisition of Pioneer Foods in 2020, explains Tertius Carstens, CEO of PepsiCo South Africa: “We are committed to supporting the broad socio-economic imperatives of employment, empowerment and talent development, through this ZAR1.655 billion ESOP.”
Carstens further explains that the Bašumi Trust follows a novel construct: “It was specifically designed to create the most beneficial outcome, maximizing the long-term economic benefit to the beneficiaries. Participation is unencumbered and each beneficiary will enjoy annual dividends, as well as larger milestone payments every five years, for as long as the Trust exists.”
The annual dividend was paid on 20 January this year, providing an additional income stream to qualifying employees.
One of the Bašumi Trustees, Tumi Seitshiro (a PepsiCo employee representative based at the Isando plant) was appointed to the Board of Pioneer Food Group (Pty) Ltd as a non-executive director and explains what it means to him, “It is a testament to the truly transformative intentions of the company that this ESOP has been structured to offer meaningful financial support and inclusion of all the qualifying employees. And on a personal level, I’m truly humbled and at the same time proud to have a seat quite literally now at the table”.
PepsiCo, Inc FY and Q4 earnings
“We are pleased with our results for the fourth quarter and the full year as our business remained resilient and delivered another strong year of growth. Our results demonstrate that the investments we have made in our people, brands, portfolio, value chain, and go-to-market systems are working,” said Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta.
Laguarta continued, “Moving forward, we will continue to focus on driving growth and winning in the marketplace while developing advantaged capabilities to fortify our businesses for the longterm.
This includes embedding Pepsico Positive at the centre of our business in how we innovate, operate, run our teams, and build our brands.
For 2023, we expect to deliver 6 percent organic revenue growth and 8 percent core constant currency earnings per share growth. We also announced a 10 percent increase in our annualized dividend, starting with our June 2023 payment which represents our 51st consecutive annual increase, and plan to repurchase approximately $1.0 billion worth of shares.”
The international business delivered 16 percent organic revenue growth for the full year and in the fourth quarter, its seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit organic revenue growth.
Each of our international divisions reported strong organic revenue growth, led by Latin America and Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Both divisions delivered more than 20 percent organic revenue growth for the full year with South Africa delivering double-digit organic revenue growth.
The full earnings release can be found here: PepsiCo.com
