SPI Pharmaceuticals Stock Falls on News of Dividend Cut

The drug company founded by Milan Panic, now prime minister of Yugoslavia, took a pounding on Wall Street Monday as investors fled the company on a recent announcement that it will slash its quarterly dividend.

SPI Pharmaceuticals Inc., which said Friday that it was cutting this month’s quarterly dividend by 75%, saw its stock plummet $5.125 a share in heavy trading to close at $13 a share on the American Stock Exchange. That selloff took the share price below its previous 52-week low of $15.50 on Oct. 5.

SPI decided to cut its dividend beginning this quarter from 26.5 cents a share to 6.25 cents a share because of the continuing civil war in Yugoslavia, where it has operations, and that nation’s unstable currency. The company said that it will restore the dividend to the higher level once the Yugoslav civil war subsides.