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Wynn Sets Special Dividend of $4; Plans Quarterly Dividend



DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) unveiled a special dividend of $4 a share and plans to pay a quarterly dividend starting next year.

Shares rose 6.7% to $63.75 in recent premarket trading. Through Friday's close, the stock was up about 40% this year.

The special dividend is expected to cost the casino operator about $492 million. Wynn predicted a dividend for the first quarter of next year of 20 cents a share.

The company recently had one of the strongest balance sheets of U.S. casino operators and it reported stronger-than-expected results for the third quarter last month. At the time, Chief Executive Steve Wynn said he plans to focus spending on expansion in Macau, a relative bright spot for the industry.

The industry has struggled amid the recession as visitors cut back on spending and Las Vegas casino hotel and casino projects go unfinished as funding ran out.

Wynn owns 18% of the company's stock, and the special dividend would come as he and his wife are in the process of divorcing for a second time. The couple married in 1963, divorced in 1986 and remarried five years later.

-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2481; Tess.Stynes@dowjones.com;

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  11-09-090943ET
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