Rhode Island-based Pangaea Logistics Solutions is restoring its quarterly shareholder dividend about one year after suspending it in a reaction to the coronavirus outbreak.
On Monday, Pangaea said its board had approved a $0.02 payout per share to be paid on 15 March to all shareholders of record as of 1 March.
The Ed Coll-led owner of dry bulk vessels said the suspension had come last 20 March based on "unprecedented and uncertain conditions" caused by the virus, and "the potential impact responses might have on the company's short-term earnings and cash flow."
Coll had put it more directly on an earnings call last March.
“It’s a defensive move,” Coll said in response to a question from Noble Capital Markets analyst Poe Fratt.
“To me, what it means is there’s so much uncertainty out there, that we’re better off hoarding our cash. We will have a better use for it."
The payout Pangaea is now restoring is bound to be seen as a hopeful view of a 2021 market recovery as vaccines roll out across the globe. Yet it is smaller than the $0.035 distribution Pangaea had initiated in 2018.
The Newport-based owner said it would continue to review the payout on a quarterly basis.
Nasdaq-listed Pangaea is a specialist in niche markets and project cargoes, whose steady revenue streams have yielded the owner a greater premium to market indices than any other public owner in dry bulk, according to Denmark-based VesselIndex Report.
Pangaea traded down about 2.5% Monday to $2.49 prior to announcing the restored dividend. There was no after-hours trading reflected for the stock.
Pangaea has a current market capitalisation of more than $123m.
