Plains Shareholders Approve Acquisition by Freeport McMoRan

By Eric Volkman – May 20, 2013 at 4:40PM

NYSE: FCX

Freeport-McMoRan

Market Cap

$69B

Today's Change

(0.52%) $0.25

Current Price

$48.24

Price as of April 24, 2024, 4:00 p.m. ET

They'll take a payout of nearly $7 billion, plus a $3.00-per share supplemental dividend.

Plains Exploration & Production (NYSE: PXP) will become part of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX 0.52%) over the course of the next 11 days. Plains shareholders today approved their company's acquisition by Freeport in a deal expected to close on May 31.

The price of the transaction is $6.9 billion in cash and stock. Freeport has also pledged to pay Plains shareholders a special dividend of $3.00 per share in cash after the deal is completed.

Freeport's current stockholders will also be rewarded -- the company announced that it will hand out a $1.00-per-share supplemental dividend following the closing of the transaction. This is in addition to the firm's freshly declared regular quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per share.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.