(By Balaseshan) Celanese Corp. (NYSE: CE), a global technology and specialty materials company, said its board of directors increased its share repurchase authorization to $400 million.
The Dallas, Texas-based company had $136 million remaining under its previous authorization as of September 30, 2012. The authorization gives management discretion in determining the timing and conditions under which shares may be repurchased.
"This increased share repurchase authorization reflects the confidence we have in our business and its ability to generate strong cash flow today and in the future," said Mark Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer.
The company said it will continue to pursue with this authorization its balanced cash deployment strategy, including opportunistic share repurchases, which Celanese expects will drive increased shareholder value.
On Thursday, the company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.075 per share on its Series A common stock, payable on November 8. The dividend is payable for the period beginning August 1 and ending on and including October 31 to stockholders of record as of October 29.
The company is scheduled to release its third quarter earnings results on Monday after the market closes. Wall Street analysts are expecting Celanese to report a 29.10 percent drop in earnings to $0.90 per share on lower revenue of $1.70 billion.
The company employs about 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2011 net sales of $6.8 billion, with about 73 percent generated outside of North America.
Celanese is a producer of acetyl products, which are intermediate chemicals, for industries, as well as a global producer of engineered polymers that are used in a variety of applications. It operates through four business segments: advanced engineered materials, consumer specialties, industrial specialties and acetyl intermediates.
CE is trading down 1.96 percent at $37.46 on Friday. The stock has been trading between $32.77 and $52.59 for the past 52 weeks.