The price of the unit has escalated from $1.53 to $1.57 within a day when trading reopened on Thursday, 7 April 2016.  

The trading of units was closed for a day on Wednesday, 6 April 2016 when management received information that the Board of Bluesky Samoa may be declaring a dividend on that day. 

 The new unit price also reflects a 61.9per cent growth in the unit value since the first units were traded at 97 sene in September 2010 and excluding all of the dividends paid to unitholders in August  2012, July 2013, June 2014 and 2015.

The Bluesky Samoa Board of Directors declared a total dividend of $5.7 million tala for its shareholders during its meeting on 6 April 2016.  U.T.O.S will be receiving $1,425,000 of that amount.  This is equivalent to a 17.9per cent return on investment. 

Whilst the netbook value of the U.T.O.S in the Bluesky Samoa books is estimated at $13.2 million as of end December 2015, the original book value of the investment is still maintained at $7.9m in the U.T.O.S accounts.

The U.T.O.S Board and management are pleased with returns on its equity investment in Bluesky which is contributing significantly  to enhancing the increase in prices of the U.T.O.S units. 

Since U.T.O.S became a shareholder of Bluesky Samoa in 2011, it has been receiving dividends every year from the Company.  

The total amount of dividend paid by Bluesky Samoa to U.T.O.S over the years including the recent dividend is $4.92 million.  This is in addition to direct benefits which unitholders are entitled to when they subscribe to the Bluesky network under the U.T.O.S Mobile Plan launched over two years ago. 

Bluesky is estimated to have injected $42 million tala into the Samoan economy during 2015.  

This comes in the form of annual inward foreign exchange (circa $12.9 million), dividends to local shareholders, making up 48% of the total shareholding including UTOS ($1.9m), Government (circa $4.4m), local suppliers $15.2m and employees ($7.6m).  It has contributed $1 million plus tala annually to our Sevens team. 

U.T.O.S owns 25% of Bluesky Samoa Limited and 26% of Bluesky Pacific Holdings Limited.  

It expects the current trend of dividends and benefits from Bluesky Samoa to continue to increase over the next five years.  

In addition, it expects dividends from its investment in Bluesky Pacific Holdings Limited to start rolling in over the next year.  These expectations are based on the fact that U.T.O.S has worked closely with the Bluesky Group to improve and expand services and products within Samoa as well as the Pacific region.