$5 Dividend to Be Regal Reward for Anschutz
If there’s one thing Denver billionaire Philip F. Anschutz seemingly can’t get enough of, it’s cash.
Anschutz’s Regal Entertainment Group, the nation’s largest movie-theater owner, said Thursday that it would issue an “extraordinary dividend” of about $5 a share, which would translate into $368.5 million for the man who owns 57% of the firm. In July, Regal distributed a similar-sized payout that yielded Anschutz $372 million.
The payouts from Regal, which will total $740.5 million, come on top of about $2 billion that Anschutz harvested from the sale of stock in Qwest Communications International Inc. Anschutz, who founded Qwest and was its chairman from 1998 to 2002, drew heavy criticism for selling some of his shares before the company’s stock plummeted in 2000 and 2001.
What’s Anschutz doing with all that money?
“It is reinvested as it comes in,” said Jim Monaghan, a spokesman for Anschutz, whose vast and varied holdings include Staples Center, hockey’s Los Angeles Kings, the L.A. Galaxy and four other Major League Soccer teams, a large commercial real estate portfolio, and minority stakes in railroad giant Union Pacific Corp. and the Los Angeles Lakers NBA franchise.
“It just so happens that [Regal] is doing very well, and this is what happens,” Monaghan said, referring to the dividend. “This is not Phil; this is the Anschutz company. It just so happens that Phil owns the company. All investors and shareholders get this.”
Regal, which has more than 550 theater complexes in 39 states under the names Edwards, Regal and United Artists, said the dividend was subject to board approval and completion of previously announced financings.
An oil and gas billionaire by 1982, Anschutz rode the telecom boom that began in the late 1990s, with Forbes magazine estimating his wealth at $18 billion in 2000. But as telecom went bust, Anschutz’s fortunes also took a steep downturn; Forbes in late 2003 put his wealth at $5 billion.
Federal authorities are investigating Qwest over alleged improper accounting practices that may have increased revenue and masked expenses, thereby making the dominant local phone carrier in 14 Western states look more profitable than it was.
Investigators are looking into whether Qwest and rival Global Crossing Ltd. swapped network space and used the transactions to boost revenue improperly. A House panel last year failed to link Anschutz to improprieties at Qwest.
