Gaming Partners International Corp. has now announced a special dividend that they are going to be releasing. The company announced that they were planning on returning a total of $1.48 million, to shareholders. The dividend is going to be paid out to her one-time special dividend of 18.25 cents per share, which is going to be made payable on December 18. The company is responsible for making gaming supplies, and has products that are used in a variety of different casinos throughout the area. There are responsible for making dice, playing cards, table game layouts, table games supplies, and a wide range of other products that are available in casinos around the world. The plans were approved by the Board of Directors, shortly after the earnings of the third quarter were returned.
The plan that was approved by the board of directors as part of a share buyback program, in which the company is looking to purchase back 88,561 shares of the company. This means that the number of shares authorized for repurchase will rise to 400,000. This equates to 4.9% of the company’s outstanding common stock, which some analysts were worried was too large of a number.
In a statement that was released by the CEO, Greg Gronau, he detailed exactly why the buyback was happening, and said that because the profitability that the company had seen over the course of the previous year, they had made the special cash dividend possible in 2012. The dividend utilizes cash that was provided by the company’s profitability, and increases the number of shares that were authorized under the share repurchase program that the company announced some time ago.
“The board determined that it is in the stockholders’ best interests to pay a special cash dividend for 2012. The dividend…utilizes cash provided by the company’s continued profitability during 2012,” CEO Greg Gronau said. “Additionally, the increase of shares authorized under our share repurchase program provides us with the flexibility to return additional value to our stockholders. After using funds for both the dividend and the share repurchase program, we will continue to have adequate resources for future initiatives.”
The announcement shows that GPI is one of a number of different companies that have been able to distribute cash to shareholders before the end of the year. Many believe that this was done in advance of the potential income tax hikes that could become available next month. In an attempt to avoid having the money fall under the new income tax, many companies have provided similar dividend programs, in order to avoid having the money more heavily taxed as the government continues to negotiate about the upcoming potential fiscal cliff.
Last month, GPI announced that it had been able to earn a total of $1.3 million, a total of $.15 per share in the third quarter. This was up from just $477,000, a total of six cents per share just a year ago. The company also announced a huge growth in revenue, from $13.8 million, to a total of $16.9 million overall.