MANAMA: Bahrain Clear has distributed cash dividends amounting to BD204 million for the year-ended December 2020, under the Amanat programme.

The company, a licensed clearing house, announced the total amount included BD200m in annual cash dividends and BD4m in accumulated cash dividends.

Two independent funds, the Accumulated Cash Dividends Fund (dividends unclaimed for six months) and the Annual Cash Dividends Fund were established under the Amanat programme.

In accordance with Ministerial Cabinet Resolution No 2020/48-2, Bahrain Bourse established the Amanat investor protection funds programme to ensure investor protection and management and administration of cash dividend distribution for all listed companies.

As per article (10) of Amanat resolution 3/2020, the right to claim the cash dividends due to the shareholders is imprescriptible.

A total amount of BD37m was transferred by 39 listed companies to Bahrain Clear and deposited in the Accumulated Cash Dividends Fund.

Of this, BD4m has been transferred to 1,937 entitled shareholders as of end-October 2021 representing 10.81pc of the total amount received.

As for the Annual Cash Dividends Fund, dividends amounting to BD200m have been distributed, representing 96pc of the overall dividend declaration.

Since the inception of Amanat, the cash dividend distribution increased from an average of 82pc as of July 2021 to 96pc as of November 2021.

Bahrain Clear managed the distribution process on behalf of 26 securities listed on Bahrain Bourse that have declared dividends for the year 2020 including interim dividends, and all investors received their dividends via IBAN bank transfers.

Bahrain Clear vice-chairman and managing director Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said: “Since Bahrain Clear has taken the responsibility of dividend distributions in 2021 subsequent to the Amanat resolution 3/2020, we have intensified our efforts to update KYC information and IBAN details to reach out to the entitled shareholders. We will continue this process until the unclaimed dividends are completely distributed.”

The clearing house has called on all investors to update their KYC information and IBAN details to ensure they receive their dividends promptly.

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