The board of directors of Pleasanton-headquartered Safeway, Inc. has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.23 per share, payable on Jan. 2 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 26.
Safeway, a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America based on sales, is on the verge of completing its $9.4 billion merger with rival Cerberus Capital Management LP’s Albertsons, possibly during the current quarter.
A recent report in The Wall Street Journal said the deal between the supermarket giants, yet to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission, comes as traditional grocery stores come under tougher competition from retailers such as Walmart and online marketplaces such as Amazon.com.
Safeway operates 1,326 stores in the United States and had annual sales of $35.1 billion in 2013.
According to Supermarket News, Safeway’s net income fell as a result of a series of one-time charges while sales increased for the third quarter and 36 weeks ended Sept. 6.
Net income dropped 85.6% to $9.5 million for the 12-week quarter and 96.2% to $7.4 million for the year to date, while sales increased 2.6% to $8.3 billion for the quarter and 1.7% to $24.7 billion for the 36-week period.
The company said the earnings decline resulted from a loss on continuing operations of $21.2 million, plus three one-time items that totaled $99.4 million: $84.4 million from early “extinguishment” of debt; $11.2 million from merger-related expenses; and $3.8 million from a loss on foreign exchange rates from Canada.
Safeway officials said they are “hopeful” the merger will be completed by the end of the calendar year, though no specific target date has been announced, Supermarket News reported.
