Gingersnap
06-11-2010, 03:37 PM
Nancy Pelosi calls halt on BP dividends to stockholders
Updated: 6/11/10 2:47 PM EDTText Size- + reset
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in her sharpest rebuke yet of the oil industry, said Friday that BP should not make dividend payments to stockholders until those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are made “whole.”
“I’m saying that they should not be paying dividends until they make these people whole and make a better effort to do it in a timely fashion,” Pelosi told reporters. “These people are coming to us and saying ‘I have to take out a loan,’ . . . . which I can ill-afford to repay because BP is not, you know, is not paying. BP has the money, it made $17 billion last year. They went up, what, 12 points on the stock market yesterday?”
BP’s paying dividends to stock holders has grown controversial in recent days, as Gulf shore residents have complained about the speed in which the company has responded to loss of income claims.
The Times of London reported Friday that BP was preparing to defer payment of its next dividend and instead put the money in an escrow account until the full scale of the company’s liabilities from the spill can be determined.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday he would “stay out of their legal obligations to shareholders” but added that the company shouldn’t “nickel-and-dime anybody in the Gulf” if it could redistribute profits and run pricey television ads.
Pelosi’s view was less nuanced.
“I thought dividends were something you paid because you made such and such a profit, I didn’t know it was something you paid off before you took care of your expenses,” she said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38425.html#ixzz0qZhjBDf4
Updated: 6/11/10 2:47 PM EDTText Size- + reset
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in her sharpest rebuke yet of the oil industry, said Friday that BP should not make dividend payments to stockholders until those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are made “whole.”
“I’m saying that they should not be paying dividends until they make these people whole and make a better effort to do it in a timely fashion,” Pelosi told reporters. “These people are coming to us and saying ‘I have to take out a loan,’ . . . . which I can ill-afford to repay because BP is not, you know, is not paying. BP has the money, it made $17 billion last year. They went up, what, 12 points on the stock market yesterday?”
BP’s paying dividends to stock holders has grown controversial in recent days, as Gulf shore residents have complained about the speed in which the company has responded to loss of income claims.
The Times of London reported Friday that BP was preparing to defer payment of its next dividend and instead put the money in an escrow account until the full scale of the company’s liabilities from the spill can be determined.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday he would “stay out of their legal obligations to shareholders” but added that the company shouldn’t “nickel-and-dime anybody in the Gulf” if it could redistribute profits and run pricey television ads.
Pelosi’s view was less nuanced.
“I thought dividends were something you paid because you made such and such a profit, I didn’t know it was something you paid off before you took care of your expenses,” she said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38425.html#ixzz0qZhjBDf4