Sealaska Corp.’s annual shareholder dividend declined this year for the first time since at least 2014. The payment of $5.85 per share is a drop from $7.67 last year and the lowest payout since $5.40 a share in 2018, according to a statement released Nov. 2 by the Southeast Alaska Native corporation.
The lower dividend is causing unhappy shareholders to criticize Sealaska’s leadership. The Native regional corporation said a number of business factors account for the lower dividend, including a decrease in shared revenues from other Native regional corporations and a bad year for its investment fund.
In a separate news release, the corporation announced Nov. 8 that chief executive officer Anthony Mallott will leave the job as of Jan. 1.
Mallott joined Sealaska in 2006 as its chief investment officer and treasurer. He became president and CEO in June 2014.
The news release did not provide any details about finding a permanent replacement.
Mallott arrived as the company was in crisis, having reported $35 million in losses the previous year stemming largely from problems at a heavy construction subsidiary.
Since then, Sealaska has reorganized its subsidiaries around the theme of ocean health and made a small investment in a Southeast kelp products company — a shift that its leaders, including Mallott, describe as an effort to better align Sealaska’s businesses with Indigenous values.
In 2021, the company announced its transition away from logging, a business that had long polarized its shareholders because of its environmental impacts.
A Sealaska board member described Mallott’s departure as a reflection of the board’s desire to refocus and deepen the company’s relationships with shareholders and potential partners in Southeast — including tribal governments, village leaders and educational institutions.
For its 2023 dividend to shareholders, the corporation will pay out a total of about $17.2 million to nearly 26,000 shareholders, compared to $15.4 million paid to about 23,000 shareholders in 2022. The higher shareholder number this year comes after members voted in June 2022 to drop the requirement that descendants of original shareholders prove they have one–quarter Native blood to become a shareholder.
Dividends are paid twice a year. This fall’s payment — accounting for $13.6 million of the $17.2 million payout for the year — includes $4.5 million from Sealaska operations, $3 million from the corporation’s permanent fund earnings and $6.1 million in resource revenue-sharing funds paid to Sealaska by other regional Native corporations in Alaska, according to a company press release.
The fall payment was issued Thursday, Nov. 9.
Amanda Warren, a Sealaska shareholder in Lynnwood, Washington, criticized what she called the corporation’s poor financial performance, a lack of transparency by leaders with shareholders, and high compensation for Sealaska executives while dividends are being reduced.
“You have shareholders and elders, especially elders, who are struggling to make ends meet,” she said in an interview Nov. 6.
“We know that Sealaska has been struggling,” she said. “We’ve been trying to give people more opportunities. But it’s just like people are being shut down, our own shareholders don’t feel like we’re even a part of our company anymore.”
Nathaniel Herz, of the Northern Journal, contributed reporting for this story.
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