Shareholder payment boosted

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co. said it will buy back as much as $5 billion of common and Class B stock, increasing the amount of cash it plans to distribute to shareholders by $700 million to $10.7 billion.

The world's second-largest automaker said it would buy the shares in the open market and expects to complete the purchases by the end of 2001.

Ford last month paid out about $5.7 billion in cash under a recapitalization plan aimed at distributing as much as $10 billion in cash to shareholders. In addition to swapping old shares for new stock, investors could get $20 in cash, new shares or a combination of the two. The move let Ford distribute some of the wealth it accumulated in recent years of record U.S. auto demand.

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