(Cheniere, 17.Jun.2024) — Cheniere Energy, Inc.’s (NYSE: LNG) Board of Directors has approved an increase in its share repurchase authorization by an additional $4bn through 2027, and a plan to increase its quarterly dividend by approximately 15% to $2.00 per common share annualized, commencing with the third quarter 2024.
Today’s announcement highlights Cheniere’s robust cash flow generation and visibility while demonstrating further execution on Cheniere’s ‘20/20 Vision’ capital allocation plan (the “Plan”). Introduced in 2022, the Plan is designed to enable continued investment in Cheniere’s robust and accretive organic growth project pipeline, return meaningful capital to shareholders via share repurchases and a stable and growing dividend, and achieve and maintain investment grade credit metrics. Since the Plan’s announcement, Cheniere has funded accretive, brownfield growth, bringing the Corpus Christi Stage 3 Project to over 60% complete2, repurchased approximately 10% of shares outstanding while growing its dividend by over 30%, and achieved investment grade ratings throughout the corporate structure.
“These increases reflect the continued follow through with our ‘20/20 Vision’ capital allocation plan, which is enabled by Cheniere’s outstanding financial performance, as well as our steadfast commitment to safety and operational excellence throughout our business. The new repurchase authorization will enable us to further reduce share count, and the increased dividend will enhance capital returns while retaining significant financial flexibility to fund accretive growth,” said Zach Davis, Cheniere’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
“This announcement solidifies our line of sight towards the goals of the capital allocation plan to maximize shareholder value by deploying over $20bn of available cash towards accretive growth, capital returns, and a sustainable investment grade balance sheet, in order to generate over $20 per share in run-rate distributable cash flow for shareholders,” Davis said.
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NOTES:
1 Subject to declaration by Board of Directors.
2 Corpus Christi Stage 3 project completion is as of 31 May 2024 and reflects engineering 92.9% complete, procurement 78.0% complete, subcontract 82.1% complete and construction 22.3% complete.
