JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Southeast Alaska’s regional Native corporation has posted its first internal profit in 14 years.
In documents released to shareholders on Thursday, Sealaska Corp. reported net income of $43.3 million in 2017, The Juneau Empire reported .
The report marks a huge turnaround for the corporation, which lost $35 million in 2013 and hasn’t broken even on its own operations in a decade and a half.
“We’re excited. There’s more to come,” Sealaska CEO Anthony Mallott said. “We’ve spent the last five years saying this is what we’re going to do, so it’s exciting to show.”
The shift in Sealaska’s fortunes corresponds with a new five-year plan approved by the corporation’s board of directors in 2012.
Sealaska’s revenue now comes from four main areas: Natural resources, services, food and investments.
Sealaska also earns money from real estate and other minor sources, including a stake in a prospective casino in California, which CEO Anthony Mallott says the corporation is trying to unload.
Sealaska has 22,000 shareholders, making it the largest of the 13 regional Native corporations in Alaska.
Since the start of the year, the corporation’s board of directors has authorized a $10 million deposit into the scholarship endowment for shareholders, and it announced a spring dividend of $23.1 million, more than twice the size of the $10.6 million dividend distributed last spring.
Board chairman Joe Nelson said it’s a priority to bring more of the success back home to shareholders.
“You have to tie financial success to increased shareholder benefits, because who cares if we’re high-fiving about a $43 million income year when the shareholders don’t feel it?” Mallott said. “This is the time to increase scholarships, to build a growing and sustainable dividend. It’s exciting to see what it means to our shareholders.”
___
Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.