The State Trading Organization (STO) has approved a dividend of MVR 80 per share for profit in 2024.

This is the second consecutive year that MVR 80 was approved as dividend per share and is the highest dividend in the past 17 years.

The dividend was approved by 99.9 percent of the shareholders at the annual general meeting held at Barcelo Nasandhura on Saturday night.

According to figures released in April, STO posted revenue of MVR 15.4 billion last year. This is a six percent decrease from the previous year.

STO said this was caused because of the decline in revenue from the oil business following the three price reductions following global price changes.

Along with the decline in revenue, STO's total profit fell 12 percent from the previous year, with an operating profit of MVR 1.1 billion.

STO posted a net profit before tax of MVR 846 million last year. This is also a 15 percent decrease from the previous year. Profit after tax was MVR 741 million.