PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sovereign Bancorp, Inc.
("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), parent company of Sovereign Bank, announced today
that its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend increase of 50% on
its common stock. The increase will result in a quarterly cash dividend of
$.06 per share and an annual cash dividend of $.24 per share. The regular
quarterly cash dividend is payable on November 15, 2005 to common stock
shareholders of record on November 1, 2005.
"The Board of Directors and our management team remain very disciplined to
our capital allocation process. During the first and second quarter of this
year we returned 86% of net income to our shareholders through cash dividends
and share repurchases. We are very pleased to be able to reward our
shareholders with an increase in our quarterly cash dividend and remain
committed to consider additional increases in future quarters. Based upon
today's closing stock price, our prospective dividend yield is 1.1%," stated
Jay S. Sidhu, Sovereign's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
In addition to the common stock cash dividend, a dividend payment of
$0.546875 per share is payable on September 30, 2005 on Sovereign's Preferred
Securities issued by Sovereign Capital Trust III (NYSE: SOVPRA) to holders of
record on September 29, 2005.
Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., ("Sovereign") (NYSE: SOV), is the parent company
of Sovereign Bank, a $60 billion financial institution with more than 650
community banking offices, over 1,000 ATMs and approximately 10,000 team
members with principal markets in the Northeast United States. Sovereign
offers a broad array of financial services and products including retail
banking, business and corporate banking, cash management, capital markets,
trust and wealth management and insurance. Sovereign is the 19th largest
banking institution in the United States. For more information on Sovereign
Bank, visit http://www.sovereignbank.com or call 1-877-SOV-BANK.
Note: "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this press release regarding Sovereign
Bancorp's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such
risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual future events to differ from
those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Forward-Looking
Statements" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently
ended fiscal year.
SOURCE Sovereign Bancorp, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.sovereignbank.com
CONTACT:
FINANCIAL: Mark McCollom, +1-610-208-6426,
or mmccollo@sovereignbank.com, or Stacey Weikel, +1-610-208-6112,
or sweikel@sovereignbank.com; or MEDIA: Ed Shultz,
+1-610-378-6159, or eshultz1@sovereignbank.com, all of Sovereign
Bancorp
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