For the first time in almost six years, Sitnasuak Native Corp. paid its shareholders a dividend on the eve of its 33-year anniversary.
According to Sitnasuak Native Corp. president and chief executive officer Robbie Fagerstrom, the corporation paid its 2,900 shareholders a dividend of $1 a share. Most shareholders have 100 shares of stock.
Sitnasuak Native Corp. is Nome's village corporation and was founded in 1973.
"We paid 25 percent of the 7i funds, and after an audit at the end of the year, there will most likely be another dividend paid in March from our operations profits," Fagerstrom said. The 7i provision of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act spreads the wealth of the more profitable Alaska Native corporations to those that are less profitable.
Fagerstrom, who has led Sitnasuak since 1981 and has seen the company through leaner times, said this was an exceptionally good year for the corporation, but would not reveal the total gross revenue for the 7i funds or from the corporation's subsidiaries.
"We were able to see some turn-around in a Puerto Rico company called SNC Telecommunication that we operate," he said. SNC Telecommunication is an 8(a) certified company, meaning it receives preferential treatment for government contracts under a special Small Business Administration provision.
Sitnasuak Native Corp. also operates a commercial real estate company, Nanuaq Inc. It also owns Bonanza Fuel Inc., a fuel company with a tank farm that also sells home heating fuel. Nanuaq owns the building of Nome's only Tesoro Station and BFI runs the operation, according to Fagerstrom. Sitnasuak also owns Nome Cellular Connection, a cellular phone service provider. All the companies are wholly owned by Sitnasuak.
Fagerstrom indicated that Sitnasuak management had identified that the company needed to close some subsidiaries and focus on others to improve the corporation's financial status several years ago.
Sitnasuak will hold its annual shareholders meeting in Nome in May, according to Fagerstrom.
Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.
