Jun. 17, 2011 (Business Wire) -- Newcastle Investment Corp. (NYSE: NCT) announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per common share for the second quarter of 2011. The dividend is payable on July 29, 2011 to shareholders of record on July 5, 2011. The Company's common shares will begin trading ex-dividend on June 29, 2011.
The Board of Directors also declared dividends on the Company's Series B, Series C and Series D preferred stock for the period beginning May 1, 2011 and ending July 30, 2011. The dividends are payable on July 29, 2011 to shareholders of record on July 5, 2011. The Company will pay total dividends of $0.609375, $0.503125 and $0.523438 per share on the 9.75% Series B, 8.05% Series C and 8.375% Series D preferred stock, respectively.
Recent Cash and Investment Activity
Since the May 6, 2011 first quarter earnings release, the Company has invested an additional $59 million of unrestricted cash, resulting in total unrestricted cash investments since March 31, 2011 of $122 million at an expected average return of 18%. This amount includes the investment of $86 million to repurchase $119 million face amount of Newcastle CDO debt at an average price of 72% of par.
As of June 16, 2011, the Company had $62 million of unrestricted cash, and it expects to receive an additional $30 million in the next two weeks, which would increase unrestricted cash to $92 million. The Company also had $250 million of restricted cash available for reinvestment within its consolidated CDOs, and it expects to close on $144 million of new investments in the next 30 days, which would leave $106 million of restricted cash to invest within the CDOs. Although the Company expects that it will be able to close on these investments, there can be no assurances in this regard.
Kenneth Riis, Newcastle's CEO commented, "We are pleased to announce the reinstatement of our common dividend. Our most recent investment activity has been very successful, and we are well positioned to generate stable earnings and cash flows. The second quarter dividend of 10 cents per common share reflects only a portion of our operating cash flow and earnings.