Former NEDA secretary Karl Chua joins board of Lao family’s D&L

The Lao family’s manufacturing giant D&L Industries Inc. appointed former Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua as independent director during its annual stockholders’ meeting on Monday.

“We are pleased to welcome Karl to our board of directors. He brings a fresh perspective with his distinguished experience as an economist, working for the World Bank for over a decade and serving the government in various strategic leadership roles thereafter,” D&L president and CEO Alvin Lao said in a statement.

“With independent directors continuing to hold a majority of our board, the company remains committed to upholding good governance and transparency,” he added.

Chua was the head of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) during the latter part of the Duterte administration.

“He has extensive experience in the areas of economic and fiscal policy, statistical development, national identification, labor and social protection policy, poverty analysis, and digital transformation, among others,” D&L noted.

Chua takes the place of Filemon Berba, who served on D&L’s board from 2012 until he died on April 4.

“D&L’s management would like to honor Mr. Berba for his invaluable contributions to the company’s board. Mr. Berba, with his wealth of leadership experience, vision and dedication, played a key role in D&L’s initiatives of upholding the highest standards of corporate governance in the company,” the company said.

D&L’s three other independent directors are Mercedita Nolledo, Corazon de la Paz-Bernardo, and Lydia Balatbat-Echauz.

D&L also announced a record cash dividend of P0.30 per share after recording historic high earnings in 2022.

This was comprised of a P0.24 regular dividend and a P0.06 special dividend.

The dividends are payable on July 14 to shareholders of record as of June 20 this year.

“Management remains highly committed to its dividend policy of a 50 percent payout ratio based on prior year’s net income,” D&L said.

“D&L has also been able to declare special dividends for three years in a row now since it was paused in 2020 due to the uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic,” it added.

The company said capital spending requirements would ease after the completion of its Batangas manufacturing plant by the middle of 2023. INQ

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