The common stock dividend follows Colonial's dividend payment on Sept. 30 to preferred shareholders of 55 cents per share. The dividend on the company's 8.75% Series A preferred shares represents an annualized dividend of $2.19 per share.
The dividend payouts come as the REIT is experiencing one of its most successful development, acquisition and fiscal periods. For the second quarter, Colonial reported earnings per share increased 183% to 99 cents from 35 cents for the same 2001 period.
Earnings for the second quarter rose 199% to $21.8 million from $7.3 million in second quarter 2001. Year-to-date earnings per share increased 158% to $1.60 from 62 cents for the same 2001 period. Third-quarter earnings are being prepared.
The company periodically partners with national developers in key markets. On Oct. 16, Colonial and Chattanooga, TN-based CBL & Associates Properties Inc. opened the estimated $63 million, 630,000-sf Parkway Place regional mall in Huntsville, AL.
Colonial landed a name national tenant in September in Bass Pro Shops which has contracted to build an estimated $15 million, 102,000-sf retail store in the Colonial Mall at U.S. 17and Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach, SC.
Thomas H. Lowder, Colonial's chairman/CEO, says in a prepared second-quarter statement, the company's second-quarter record fiscal performance was due to the timing of certain property sales.
"A significant portion of the increase in earnings per share was attributable to the gains recognized on asset sales," Lowder says. These sales are "a recurring part of the company's strategy--the timing and amount of these asset sales fluctuate from quarter to quarter."
During the second quarter, for example, the REIT disposed of $75 million of assets, realizing a gain on the sale. Excluding gains on sales, the earnings per share decreased 8.5% to 32 cents from 35 cents for the same 2001 period. On a year-to-date basis, earnings per share, excluding the gains on sales, were 62 cents per share for both periods.
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