LyondellBasell Plans to Pay $2.6 Billion Dividend by Year-End"The dividend would be about $4.55 per share"
Q
By Jack Kaskey - Oct 21, 2011 6:51 AM PT
LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB), the chemical maker that emerged from bankruptcy protection last year, plans to pay a special dividend of as much as $2.6 billion as it refinances debt.
The special dividend will be paid in the current quarter from existing cash, David Harpole, a Houston-based spokesman for Rotterdam-based LyondellBasell, said today in a telephone interview. , based on reported shares outstanding.
LyondellBasell announced a tender offer late yesterday for $2.8 billion of Lyondell Chemical Co. notes due in 2017 and 2018, and it will ask noteholders to modify covenants that have limited the ability to pay more cash to shareholders. The debt will be refinanced at a lower rate, Harpole said.
Lower interest payments could add 32 cents a share to annual earnings, said Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co.
“This step to normalize the capital structure is occurring ahead of expectations, and underscores the company’s confidence in its free cash flow profile even in an uncertain environment,” Alexander said today in a note.
LyondellBasell rose 8.7 percent to $29.78 as of 9:46 a.m. in New York. The shares earlier climbed as much as 14 percent, the biggest intraday gain since the shares started trading in April 2010 with its emergence from bankruptcy.
Why didn`t I sell at a profit
