Business
Tax Benefit Preservation Plan
Tax Benefit Preservation Plan.
About this update from Fdm Group (holdings) Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 0132Z Ford Motor Co 14 September 2009 \nFORD ADOPTS TAX BENEFIT PRESERVATION PLAN\nDEARBORN, Mich., Sept. 11, 2009 - Ford Motor Company [NYSE: F] today announced that its Board of Directors has adopted a tax benefit preservation plan designed to preserve substantial tax assets.\nThrough year-end 2008, Ford had tax attributes, including net operating losses, capital losses and tax credit carryforwards, that would offset approximately $19 billion of taxable income. Ford can utilize the tax attributes in certain circumstances to offset taxable income and reduce its federal income tax liability.\nFord’s ability to use the tax attributes would be substantially limited if there were an “ownership change” as defined under Section 382 the Internal Revenue Code and Internal Revenue Service rules. In general, an ownership change would occur if Ford’s “5-percent shareholders,” as defined under Section 382, collectively increase their ownership in Ford by more than 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Five-percent shareholders do not include certain institutional holders, such as mutual fund companies, that hold Ford stock on behalf of several individual mutual funds where no single fund owns 5 percent or more of Ford stock.\nThe plan is similar to tax benefit preservation plans adopted by many other public companies with significant tax attributes.\nAs part of the plan, the Ford Board of Directors declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right for each outstanding share of its common stock and Class B stock. The preferred share purchase rights will be distributed to stockholders of record as of Sept. 25, 2009, but would only be activated if triggered by the plan.\nEffective today, if any person or group acquires 4.99 percent or more of the outstanding shares of common stock (subject to certain exceptions), there would be a triggering event under the plan resulting in significant dilution in the ownership interest of such person or group in Ford stock.\n“This plan is designed to protect shareholder value and safeguard valuable tax attributes by reducing the likelihood of an unintended ‘ownership change’ through actions involving Ford common stock,” said Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer.\nFord’s Board of Directors has the discretion to exempt any acquisition of common stock from t...