MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced that its board of directors has approved a 15 percent increase in the company's quarterly common stock cash dividend, as per the company's press release.
The dividend increased from USD0.54 to USD0.62 per share of common stock on a quarterly basis and from USD2.16 to USD2.48 per share of common stock on an annual basis. The new dividend rate will be effective immediately.
"Today's announcement marks the tenth consecutive year of dividend increases, reinforcing our commitment to consistent dividend growth as one element of our strategy to maximize shareholder value creation. Over the most recent three-year period, we have increased the dividend by 72 percent, exceeding the commitment we made in 2017. Looking forward, we have a high degree of confidence in our ability to grow earnings and cash flow to support continued annual increases in the dividend in line with our earnings growth," said Mark Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer.
The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend of USD0.62 per share on its common stock, payable on May 9, 2019 to stockholders of record as of April 29, 2019.
As MRC informed earlier, Celanese Corporation has increased April list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The price increases below were effective for orders shipped on or after 20 March, 2018, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases. Thus, VAM prices rose, as follows:
- by EUR100/mt - for Europe, Middle East & Africa;
- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada:
- by USD110/mt - for Mexico & South America;
- by USD100/mt - for Asia outside China (AOC):
- by CNY800/mt - for China.
Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700employees worldwide and had 2018 net sales of USD7.2 billion.
MRC