MeadWestvaco Executes $300 Mln Accelerated Share Repurchase

(RTTNews) - MeadWestvaco Corp. (MWV) said Thursday that it has executed an accelerated share repurchase agreement with BofA Merrill Lynch and Goldman, Sachs & Co. to purchase $300 million of MeadWestvaco's outstanding common stock, with about 7.5 million shares to be received and retired immediately.

The exact number of shares repurchased and retired by the company will be determined at June 30, 2014.

The $300 million accelerated share repurchase is part of MeadWestvaco's previously announced plan to return $700 million of sale proceeds from the company's divestiture of all of its U.S. forestlands to Plum Creek Timber Co., Inc., which was completed on December 6, 2013.

In addition to the MeadWestvaco's, the company expects to use $94 million to effect open market share repurchases at the company's discretion. Repurchases under that program also are expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2014.

Prior to those actions, MeadWestvaco repurchased and retired about 3.75 million shares of outstanding common stock for $131 million, and declared a special dividend of $1.00 per share payable March 3, 2014, to all shareholders of record on February 6, 2014.