A bonus issue is also described as a free issue, a scrip issue, a capitalisation issue and a stock dividend . These are new shares issued by a company to its existing shareholders, usually in a mathematical proportion to the number of shares already held. These shares are issued free of charge as an accounting exercise by the company. However the share price will reduce depend on the number of shares issued and the value of the holding will remain the same.

What the company is doing is turning part of the profits and reserves it will have accumulated into capital. The company may also be undertaking the exercise to reduce the unit price of its shares in the market to make them their less expensive and affordable to the smaller investors.

Dividends per share will fall in proportion to the number of bonus shares issued. The term free issue, which is sometimes used to describe bonus shares, is in fact misleading.

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Dividend is the income you receive as a shareholder from a company.

When you buy an ordinary share in a company you become a shareholder of the business and to that extent you will have certain entitlements including the right to receive dividend payments as set by the board of directors and approved by the shareholders. A dividend is a cut of the profits earned by the business for the year. This pay-out is not guaranteed and where it exists at all, the amount you’ll receive will vary from company to company and year to year.

High-growth companies rarely offer dividends because all of their profits are reinvested to help sustain higher-than-average growth. Conversely, larger companies have less potential for rapid capital growth but are more likely to pay healthy dividends which are steadily rising as the years go by.

Certain dividend is tax exempted which mean that no tax for that dividend income. In the case of taxable dividend income, you will only receive the net dividend after tax deduction.

Interim, First and Final and Final Dividend

Interim dividend is a dividend paid out by the company when the directors have received the interim (half year) financial results. The final dividend is paid when the final profits are shown in the final accounts. The first and final dividend is the only dividend paid out for that financial year. There are some companies that gives special dividend after the final dividend.

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