Unum Group, a Chattanooga-based life and disability insurance firm, will repurchase $500 million worth of outstanding shares over the next year while increasing its quarterly dividend 12.1 percent, CEO and President Tom Watjen announced at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting Thursday.
“Our consistent operating performance and strong capital position have positioned us well to initiate this share repurchase program,” Mr. Watjen said at the annual meeting in Columbia, S.C.
The dividend will amount to just over nine cents per common share.
The company had previously raised its quarterly dividend 10 percent with the dividend paid in the third quarter of 2009 and completed a $700 million share repurchase in 2008.
VW said scouting for engine plant
SouthernAutoCorridor.com is reporting that sources have told it that Volkswagen officials are scouting sites within a 60-mile radius of Chattanooga for an engine plant.
The engine plant would serve the German automaker’s assembly facility that it is building at Enterprise South industrial park.
VW officials have said engines for cars made at the Chattanooga plant beginning next year will be imported from Germany, Poland and Mexico initially.