W.P. Carey Raises Annual Dividend

NEW YORK CITY-A quarterly dividend of $0.4255 per common share has been declared by W.P. Carey & Co., based here, payable on Jan. 15, 2001 to shareholders of record on Dec. 29, 2000. This translates to $1.69 per share, and increase of 2 cents over last year’s payout, on an annualized basis.

Commenting on the dividend, company chairman William Polk Carey noted that the firm had experienced growth in funds from operations in every quarter during this year, lowering the amount of FFO, on a percentage basis, required to pay the dividend. “This, in turn, effectively provides and extra margin of safety for our shareholders while enabling the company to retain earnings in the interest of providing our shareholders the ‘best of both worlds’–stable current income and prudent investment growth,” he added.

The company, a lessor of net-leased corporate real estate, owns and manages more than 42 million sf in the US and Europe. Since it went public in two years ago, the firm has paid dividends of $124 million.