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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (83947)	8/28/2008 8:00:26 PM
From: Sr K	Respond to of 116555

BPOP cut its dividend to 8c from 16c. - Should we be surprised when that a CFO or IR department mis-describes cents as cents of cents, as in $.08 cents? This is a stock the Bankrate mis-rated. - Popular Declares Cash Dividend 08/28 04:15 PM SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Popular, Inc. (BPOP:$7.23,00$-0.25,00-3.34%) announced today that its Board of Directors declared on Thursday, August 28, 2008, a cash dividend of $0.08 cents per common share. The new dividend rate represents a reduction of 50 percent from its previous dividend payment. The dividend is payable on October 1, 2008 to the stockholders of record as of September 12, 2008. The dividend reduction will help preserve $90 million of capital a year. The dividend payment is reviewed on a quarterly basis. "Setting a new dividend rate that is more compatible with the present economic scenario has been a hard but prudent decision," said Popular CEO Richard Carrion. "While understandably painful for all of our shareholders, including many of our employees and retirees, this is absolutely a necessary step given the continued uncertainty in the financial markets and extended fallout of the U.S. housing sector. While Popular's capital base remains above 'well capitalized' ratios, the new rate will provide us with greater flexibility by significantly increasing our liquidity and allows us to meet the challenges ahead from a position of strength." Carrion added: "We have exited non-strategic markets and strengthened our balance sheet with the series of actions taken during the last 12 months. We continue to execute our plan to improve the profitability of our U.S. operations by leveraging on our core strengths in Puerto Rico, where we are the undisputed market leader. We still have work to do and will communicate the next series of actions once completed."