On 18th September, Telenor decided to pay extraordinary dividend. As it is well-known, Telenor sold ints Central and Eastern Europe’s interests in March. The purchase price was SEK 27 billion (EUR 24 billion to EUR 2.8 billion). From this purchase price, Telenor is paying 6.5 billion Norwegian crowns (EUR 677 million or 219 billion Forints) in the form of extraordinary dividends to the owners. With this step Telenor raised my 5.4% dividend yield, so I got more than 8% yield compared to the cost of my 149 NOK average purchase price. I also have some unrealized additional stock price gains, which is currently at 11%. (on the top of that, I also have a NOKHUF gain, which is about 2%,) However, at the current stock price level the dividend rate is about 5%. (of course, in Norwegian crown, not in Forint) In my opinion, such extraordinary dividends are not expected from Telenor in the near future, but Telenor has steadily increased its dividend over the past few years, which was canceled only in the years of the 2008 crisis. 2 years later, they returned to normal dividend payment, and they are still raising the dividends year-by-year.
Brokers regularly recommend Hungarin Telekom to purchase, because of the good dividend yield (25 HUF, dividend price 409Ft, which means 6% yield), undervalued, etc. I do not prefer Telekom for my part either because of the specialty of the Hungarian market. I think Telenor timed perfectly the sell of its interests in the region. So keep on rolling Telenor! 