Citycon Adjusts the Dividend Level and Investigates Opportunities to Offer an Option to Convert Dividend Payments into Shares
28 May, 2020, 17:43 BST
CITYCON OYJ Inside information 28 May 2020 at 19:20 hrs
ESPOO, Finland, May 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Citycon Oyj has today resolved to adjust the remaining quarterly instalments of the equity repayment in 2020 to further increase long-term financial stability and to strengthen the credit risk profile of the company. Following the adjustment, the Board of Directors will use a maximum total amount of EUR 0.5375 per share from its total dividend and equity repayment authorization of EUR 0.65 per share from the Annual General Meeting 2020. The Board of Directors will make separate resolutions on each distribution of the equity repayment. Citycon shall make separate announcements of such Board resolutions.
The Board of Directors also decided that the Board's proposal regarding the company's dividend and/or equity repayment, which will be made later to the AGM 2021, would be set to maximum total EUR 0.50 per share for the year 2021. This is approximately 23% less than the original authorization of EUR 0.65 per share for 2020.
Citycon also investigates opportunities to offer shareholders an option to convert dividend and equity repayment payment into shares in the future. With these decisions and considerations the Board of Directors wants to signal its commitment to gradual deleveraging and protecting Citycon's investment grade credit ratings.
Under the authorization by the Annual General Meeting held in 17 March 2020, the maximum amount of dividend to be distributed shall not exceed EUR 0.05 per share and the maximum amount of equity repayment to be distributed from the invested unrestricted equity fund shall not exceed EUR 0.60 per share. Following the authorization, a dividend of EUR 0.05 per share from retained earnings and an equity repayment of EUR 0.1125 per share from the invested unrestricted equity fund of the company were paid on 31 March 2020. After this first instalment the Board's authorization for dividend distribution is used in its entirety and the remaining authorisation for equity repayment is EUR 0.4875 per share.
Citycon's dividend policy is to pay out more than 50% of the result for the period excluding fair value changes on property.
Espoo, 28 May 2020
Citycon is a leading owner, manager and developer of urban, grocery-anchored shopping centres in the Nordic region, managing assets that total almost EUR 4.5 billion. Citycon is No. 1 shopping centre owner in Finland and among the market leaders in Norway, Sweden and Estonia. Citycon has also established a foothold in Denmark.
Citycon has investment-grade credit ratings from Moody's (Baa3) and Standard & Poor's (BBB-). Citycon Oyj's share is listed in Nasdaq Helsinki.
www.citycon.com
CONTACT:
For further information, please contact:
Eero Sihvonen
Executive VP and CFO
Tel. +358-50-557-9137
eero.sihvonen@citycon.com
Laura Jauhiainen
Head of Investor Relations
Tel. +358-40-823-9497
laura.jauhiainen@citycon.com
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SOURCE Citycon Oyj