Calista Corporation says that this year’s Akilista distribution is the biggest yet. The amount of money that will be dispersed has increased 15 percent compared to last year. In dollars, that means Calista will distribute a total of $2.97million to shareholders. Last year, the number was $2.7 million.
The money belongs to the Calista Corporation Settlement Trust, which was created two years ago. Any funds that are given out are called “distributions,” because trusts created by Native Corporations cannot give out dividends. Dividends are basically payments to the people that own shares in the company, also known as shareholders.
But while the pot of money is bigger, the number of shareholders also grew. Calista said that they added 1,600 new shareholders this year for a total of 31,400 shareholders. Each share is worth $0.88, and the average shareholder owns around 100 shares. This means that each shareholder should receive roughly $88 this year, if they have 100 shares. Applications for direct deposit are due Oct. 31.
Calista says that this year’s distribution is expected to have an economic impact of $1.8 million on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.