Tyson Foods returns ‘record’ cash to shareholders after debt paydown

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., Nov. 21 – Tyson Foods Inc. used record high cash flow in the last year to return money to its equity investors and retire high-coupon debt, the company said Monday.

“We used our record cash flow in fiscal year 2016 to return cash to shareholders and retire debt,” executive vice president and chief financial officer Dennis Leatherby said on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call on Monday.

“We increased the dividend for fiscal 2016 by 50% from the prior year.

“We also repurchased 28.2 million shares for $1.7 billion during the year.

“Combined, we returned over $1.9 billion to shareholders in share repurchases and dividends and that was after we retired some high coupon debt during the year which further strengthened our balance sheet.

Highlights

The Springdale, Ark., meat and food production company’s net debt to EBITDA for the past year was 1.7 times.

Including cash of $349 million, Tyson Foods’ net debt was $5.9 billion and its total liquidity was $1.3 billion.

Net interest expense was $57 million during the fourth quarter and $243 million during fiscal 2016.

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