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Dividend
Ahold Annual Report 2012
Share performance
Ahold at a glance
Our strategy
Our performance
Governan
nvestors
Geographic spread of shareholdings:
Percent
February 2012
February 2011
North America
28.4
28.9
UK Ireland
18.5
12.0
The Netherlands
10.5
14.3
Rest of Europe
7.4
6.8
France
5.2
6.2
Germany
2.8
1.5
Rest of the world
2.3
2.7
Switzerland
1.4
1.1
Undisclosed1
23.5
26.5
1 The undisclosed percentage of shareholdings includes all retail holdings.
Dividend
Ahold reinstated its annual dividend in 2007 and announced that it intended to increase future annual dividends while meeting the capital
needs of the business and maintaining
an efficient
investment grade capital structure.
For the 2011 financial year, a cash dividend of €0.40 per common share was approved by the annual General Meeting of Shareholders on April 17, 2012, and paid on May 2, 2012.
The announced common stock dividend of €0.44 for the financial year 2012 is up €0.04 or 10% from last year and will be proposed to shareholders at the annual General Meeting
of Shareholders to be held on April 17, 2013. The recommended dividend is in line with our dividend policy to target a payout ratio in the range of 40-50% of adjusted income from
continuing operations.
Dividends on cumulative preferred financing shares
Ahold paid an annual dividend on cumulative preferred financing shares in 2012 and plans to pay dividends on these shares in 2013 as required by the terms of the shares.
Share buyback
On February 28, 2013, Ahold announced its decision to return €500 million to its shareholders by way of a share buyback program, to be completed over the next 12 months.
