Shareholders of one of Alaska's largest Native corporations won't get a payout this year.
NANA Regional Corp. Chair Linda Lee wrote a letter addressed to shareholders last week informing them that "due to continued challenges with the economy and business performance, we will not be able to provide a distribution in 2016."
KOTZ Radio 720 AM posted the letter on its Facebook page on Saturday.
Lee said in the letter that the Northwest Alaska regional corporation has had tough times over the last year, "primarily due to reductions in operating income from its oil and gas sector and lower zinc prices."
NANA Regional owns the land on which Red Dog Mine, one of the world's largest zinc mines, is located.
The company is working on making "necessary adjustments," and has taken steps to reduce costs and cut budgets, she wrote. A NANA spokeswoman did not respond to a question about what, specifically, those adjustments are.
The corporation has more than 14,000 shareholders. In December, NANA announced a 2015 dividend of $8 per share to more than 13,800 shareholders, which factored out to about $920 per person.
Some NANA shareholders in recent months have become increasingly concerned about the financial state of the company's business arm, a subsidiary called NANA Development Corp. More than 300 people have signed an online petition asking for a special meeting to "discuss the continued losses" at NANA Development.
Moody's Investors Service downgraded NANA Development in June because of "significant deterioration in operating performance and weak cash flow generation," affecting $300 million of the corporation's rated debt.
Lee said in the letter that NANA Regional will give more detail about its financial performance in upcoming informal shareholder meetings between Oct. 26 and Nov. 11.