Hess Corp. (HES: Quote) announced initiatives marking the culmination of its multi-year strategic transformation into a pure play exploration and production company. The company also issued a letter to its shareholders in connection with the change. The company said the transformed Hess will have a focused portfolio of world class, higher growth, lower risk E&P assets that will deliver a five year CAGR of 5% to 8%, based off of pro forma 2012 production, with aggregate mid-teens production growth between pro forma 2012 and 2014. The company will fully exit its downstream businesses, including retail, energy marketing, and energy trading.
Hess said it aims to return capital directly to shareholders through an increase in the annual dividend to $1.00 per share commencing in the third quarter of 2013, and a share repurchase authorization of up to $4 billion tied to the timing of asset sales.
The company also announced a slate of five independent director nominees for election at Annual Meeting, and appointed an additional independent director who will stand for election at the 2014 annual meeting. Hess said Nicholas Brady, Thomas Kean, Frank Olson, Samuel Nunn, Gregory Hill and Borden Walker will be leaving its Board. With the changes, 13 of the 14 Board members will be independent.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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