Kuala Lumpur, 23 June 2021

AEON CO. (M) BHD. (AEON or the Company) held its 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) today to present to its shareholders the Company’s performance for the financial year ended 31 December 2020 and strategies moving forward. Datuk Iskandar Sarudin, AEON’s Chairman remarked during the virtual proceeding, “The Financial Year 2020 (FY2020) was by far, the most challenging year for our business. However, the various challenges faced during the financial year served as catalysts for AEON to quantum leap our digital journey. Embracing and adapting to the prevailing scenario in FY2020, AEON has continued to achieve steady progress in the realisation of its transformational journey. FY2020 has made AEON more demand and technology driven towards further developing its new retail ecosystem.”

Datuk Iskandar added, “AEON has continuously paid dividends for the past years and despite COVID-19 pandemic, it is no different this year. After taking into account our profit performance, the level of cash and borrowings, the shareholders have voted to approve a final dividend of 1.5 sen per ordinary share for the year ended 31 December 2020. The total amount payable of RM21 million represents a payout ratio of 50.8% of the company’s profit for the year.”

Shafie Shamsuddin, AEON’s Managing Director said, “We are very grateful to have such a loyal customer base who continues to support us amidst the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic. We wish to ensure that everyone that comes within our ecosystem, be it customers, employees, tenants or suppliers, are protected. We will leverage on our existing assets, where we have 152 locations across 12 states, to improve our retail and property business segments.”

“We have a clear direction to move forward and we will endeavour to further grow the New Retail ecosystem that is demand-based and more attuned to present market dynamics, customer consumption patterns and behaviours. Technology, digitalisation and innovation will be gamechangers for AEON going forward. We will continue to create value that is aligned with our business purpose of People, Planet and Peace.”

“Guided by AEON’s long-established philosophy of Customer First, our focus is clear in giving the utmost best of AEON’s excellent customer experience to our stakeholders, no matter how hard the situation gets. We are pleased to share that our Personal Shopper programme which we launched in April last year has served more than 780,000 customers to date, and we will continue to embody the philosophy of personalisation as we deepen our levels of service for our customers.”

“We had to pivot in embracing the new normal yet we remain steadfast in prioritising the needs of our customers and business partners. AEON strives to deliver both financial and non-financial value creation that will sustain the Company well into the future,” Shafie concluded.