Business

Reynolds American top executive to retire

The second-largest U.S. tobacco company says it will raise its dividend and plans a stock split.

Posted Updated
RJ Reynolds
By
The Associated Press
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Tobacco company Reynolds American Inc.'s Chairman and CEO ,Susan Ivey, plans to retire in February 2011, the company said Friday.

The second-largest U.S. tobacco company also raised its dividend and plans a stock split.

The maker of Camel and Natural American Spirit cigarettes and other brands is promoting Daniel "Daan" Delen to succeed Ivey as CEO. Delen, 44, is now chairman and CEO of subsidiary R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. He joined Reynolds in 2007 after serving as president of British American Tobacco Ltd.-Japan.

Reynolds' board member Thomas Wajnert, 67, will become nonexecutive chairman effective Nov. 1. He has been the board's lead director since 2008. Wajnert is a principal with the consulting firm The Alta Group and is also chairman of insurance company FGIC. He is the retired founder, chairman and CEO of AT&T Capital Corp.

Ivey, 51, has headed Reynolds since 2004. Before that, she was CEO of Brown & Williamson from 2001 until it merged with Reynolds in 2004.

Reynolds also plans to split its stock two-for-one on Nov. 15 to shareholders as of Nov. 1. It is the first stock split since the company became publicly traded in 2004.

The 8.9 percent dividend increase, from 45 cents to 49 cents adjusted for the split, is payable Jan. 3, 2011, to shareholders as of Dec. 10.

 

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