On the back of robust results US agri-giant ADM posted its 288th consecutive quarterly payment this week, declaring a cash dividend of six cents a share.
Payable to shareholders on 11 December 2003, this is ADM's 308th cash dividen and as of September 30, 2003, there were 645,344,615 shares of ADM stock outstanding. At the company's annual shareholders meeting last week the company also announced some people changes plus seven incumbent directors re-elected to its board.
Re- elected are G. A. Andreas, Mollie Hale Carter, Roger S. Joslin, David J. Mimran, M. Brian Mulroney, John K. Vanier, and O. Glenn Webb.
Patrick J. Moore and Kelvin R. Westbrook are newly elected directors to the board. Moore, chairman and CEO of Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, is also a director of Reserve Capital Partners. Westbrook is CEO of Millennium Digital Media.
ADM, a producer of high fructose syrup, will have welcomed news this week that the Mexican government might soon quash the 20 per cent 'discriminatory tax' on HFSC. Pressure the US government and companies - notably from Cargill and ADM - may well have paid off.