Amaechi Raphael Chinedu

@Official_ARC·2h

Seplat just raised its dividend 58%. This one ratio helps explain how

Seplat Energy's nine-month results came out today, and the headline for shareholders is the payout: a Q3 dividend of 19 US cents a share, up 58% from the previous quarter. Only 5 cents of that is the core dividend. The other 14 cents is a special dividend. How can a company afford to hand back that much? One quick check is the net debt to EBITDA ratio. How it works: 1. Net debt = total borrowings minus cash in the bank. 2. EBITDA = earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a rough measure of the cash the business throws off. 3. Divide the first by the second. The answer is roughly how many years of earnings it would take to clear the debt. Lower means debt is less of a burden. For $SEPLAT , net debt fell 65% from $673.3m at the end of 2025 to $234.9m at the end of September. Over the same stretch the ratio dropped from 0.53x to 0.14x. It also repaid a further $100m of debt on 27 October. Add $749m of free cash flow in nine months, and you can see why there's room for a bigger payout. One thing to keep in mind: a special dividend is extra, not a promise. It depends on how much cash is left over, which for an oil producer moves with oil prices and output. Seplat's full-year guidance stays at 45 cents a share, and it has declared 40 cents so far. To qualify for the 19 cents, you need to be on the register by 12 November. Payment is due on or around 27 November. Do you check a company's debt before you look at its dividend? Tell us below 👇 Not financial advice.