MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, has announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of USD1.05 per share, representing a five percent increase over the company's first quarter 2019 dividend, as per the company's press release.
The dividend will be paid June 17, 2019 to shareholders of record June 10, 2019, with an ex-dividend date of June 7, 2019.
"LyondellBasell's commitment to providing a progressively growing dividend for our shareholders is the foundation of our capital deployment strategy," said Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell. "This represents the eleventh increase since we began paying quarterly dividends in 2011."
The company also announced at its Annual General Meeting on May 31, 2019, shareholders approved a share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to 10 percent of the company's shares over the next 18 months. The repurchases will be executed from time to time through open market or privately negotiated transactions. LyondellBasell had approximately 370 million shares outstanding as of May 29, 2019.
As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.
LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC