On Wednesday, CME’s board declared?its annual variable dividend?at $1.30 per share.? The dividend is payable Dec. 28, 2012, to shareholders of record on Dec.17, 2012.?
This comes in advance of prior plans to pay the dividend in 2013 and it is more than double ?its previous amount (0.60 per share) in March.?
In a CME press release, the exchange stated the following: “Because of uncertainty regarding future taxation of dividends, CME Group’s board of directors has accelerated the timing of this dividend ? which would have been paid in first-quarter 2013 ? into the fourth quarter of 2012 in order to maximize the after-tax value to its shareholders.”?
CME joins a number of companies that have recently decided to pay dividends early including HCA Holdings (HCA), Dish Network Corp. (DISH) and Oracle (ORCL) thanks to the possible tax cuts on capital and dividends set to expire at year’s end. With the early?dividend payments it will enable shareholders to dodge higher tax rates next year; for the wealthiest, this may double.?
The exchange will also pay a regular quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share on Dec. 26, 2012 to shareholders of record on Dec. 10. 2012.