Commercial Metals Company Announces New $350 Million Share Repurchase Program And 17% Increase In Quarterly Dividend

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Oct 13, 2021, 08:48 ET

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Commercial Metals Company (NYSE: CMC) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a common stock repurchase program of up to $350 million. This program will cancel and replace the Company's existing plan, which had $27 million remaining under its authorization as of August 31, 2021.

CMC's Board of Directors also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per share of CMC common stock, an increase of $0.02, or 17%, per CMC common share. CMC's 228th consecutive quarterly dividend will be paid on November 10, 2021 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on October 27, 2021.

"Today's announcement reflects a well-balanced capital allocation strategy that will continue to fund value-accretive growth, while returning a meaningful portion of CMC's free cash flow to shareholders," said Barbara R. Smith, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This action was made possible by the strategic transformation carried out over the last several years, which has greatly enhanced our Company's earnings capability and cash flow profile. Looking ahead, we believe CMC is well-positioned to achieve our key strategic goals of identifying, funding and executing on attractive growth opportunities, maintaining strong returns over the economic cycle and providing shareholders with attractive cash returns, while maintaining a high-quality balance sheet."

CMC intends to repurchase shares from time to time for cash in open market transactions or in privately-negotiated transactions in accordance with applicable federal securities laws. The timing and the amount of repurchases, if any, will be determined by the Company's management based on its evaluation of market conditions, capital allocation alternatives and other factors. The new share repurchase program does not require the Company to acquire any dollar amount or number of shares of CMC common stock and may be modified, suspended, extended or terminated by the Company at any time without prior notice.

About Commercial Metals Company

Commercial Metals Company and its subsidiaries manufacture, recycle and fabricate steel and metal products and provide related materials and services through a network including seven electric arc furnace ("EAF") mini mills, two EAF micro mills, one rerolling mill, steel fabrication and processing plants, construction-related product warehouses, and metal recycling facilities in the U.S. and Poland.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to general economic conditions, key macro-economic drivers that impact our business, the effects of ongoing trade actions, the effects of continued pressure on the liquidity of our customers, potential synergies and organic growth provided by acquisitions and strategic investments, demand for our products, metal margins, the effect of COVID-19 and related governmental and economic responses thereto, the ability to operate our steel mills at full capacity, future availability and cost of supplies of raw materials and energy for our operations, share repurchases, legal proceedings, the undistributed earnings of our non-U.S. subsidiaries, U.S. non-residential construction activity, international trade, capital expenditures, our liquidity and our ability to satisfy future liquidity requirements, estimated contractual obligations and our expectations or beliefs concerning future events. The statements in this release that are not historical statements, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified by phrases such as we or our management "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "future," "intends," "may," "plans to," "ought," "could," "will," "should," "likely," "appears," "projects," "forecasts," "outlook" or other similar words or phrases, as well as by discussions of strategy, plans, or intentions.

Although we believe that our expectations are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct, and actual results may vary materially. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events, new information or circumstances or any other changes. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include those described in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" of our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2020, and Part II, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" of our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended February 28, 2021, as well as the following: changes in economic conditions which affect demand for our products or construction activity generally, and the impact of such changes on the highly cyclical steel industry; rapid and significant changes in the price of metals, potentially impairing our inventory values due to declines in commodity prices or reducing the profitability of our downstream contracts due to rising commodity pricing; impacts from COVID-19 on the economy, demand for our products, global supply chain and on our operations, including the responses of governmental authorities to contain COVID-19 and the impact of various COVID-19 vaccines; excess capacity in our industry, particularly in China, and product availability from competing steel mills and other steel suppliers including import quantities and pricing; compliance with and changes in existing and future laws, regulations and other legal requirements and judicial decisions that govern our business, including increased environmental regulations associated with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions; involvement in various environmental matters that may result in fines, penalties or judgments; potential limitations in our or our customers' abilities to access credit and non-compliance by our customers; activity in repurchasing shares of our common stock under our repurchase program; financial covenants and restrictions on the operation of our business contained in agreements governing our debt; our inability to close the sale of our Rancho Cucamonga property, including if the buyer were to terminate the purchase agreement during its 60 day due diligence review period; our ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate acquisitions, and the effects that acquisitions may have on our financial leverage; risks associated with acquisitions generally, such as the inability to obtain, or delays in obtaining, required approvals under applicable antitrust legislation and other regulatory and third party consents and approvals; operating and startup risks, as well as market risks associated with the commissioning of new projects could prevent us from realizing anticipated benefits and could result in a loss of all or a substantial part of our investments; lower than expected future levels of revenues and higher than expected future costs; failure or inability to implement growth strategies in a timely manner; impact of goodwill impairment charges; impact of long-lived asset impairment charges; currency fluctuations; global factors, such as trade measures, military conflicts and political uncertainties, including the impact of the Biden administration on current trade regulations, such as Section 232 trade tariffs and quotas, tax legislation and other regulations which might adversely impact our business; availability and pricing of electricity, electrodes and natural gas for mill operations; ability to hire and retain key executives and other employees; competition from other materials or from competitors that have a lower cost structure or access to greater financial resources; information technology interruptions and breaches in security; ability to make necessary capital expenditures; availability and pricing of raw materials and other items over which we exert little influence, including scrap metal, energy and insurance; unexpected equipment failures; losses or limited potential gains due to hedging transactions; litigation claims and settlements, court decisions, regulatory rulings and legal compliance risks; risk of injury or death to employees, customers or other visitors to our operations; and civil unrest, protests and riots.

SOURCE Commercial Metals Company