Ahtna trust declares $9 fall dividend, bringing 2026 total to $16.50 a share

Ahtna Hwt'aene Trust trustees declared a $9-a-share fall dividend Nov. 3 for Ahtna shareholders of record as of Oct. 14. With the $7.50 spring dividend paid in May, that brings Ahtna's 2026 total to $16.50 a share.

Direct deposits go out Nov. 20. Checks mail Dec. 4. Both payments are non-taxable. The trustees also declared the fourth quarterly Elder payment of $1,000, bringing each eligible Elder $4,000 this year.

The payout comes a year after the trust paid $1 a share in fall 2025, for a $7 regular total that year with a $6 spring dividend. Ahtna's Nov. 1, 2025 release blamed "management and contract challenges" at Ahtna Netiye' and several subsidiaries. It said the board had responded with leadership changes, closer oversight of underperforming contracts and cost cuts. A $3.60 special dividend followed Dec. 10, 2025. In 2024 the trust paid $15.30 a share: $6 in spring and $9.30 in fall.

Elders, defined as original shareholders 62 and older, have received quarterly payments since 2009. Ahtna says 2026 Elder payments total $1.2 million and calls that "the largest annual amount ever distributed," the same description its 2025 release used for the same total.

The board created the trust in 2014. Every shareholder dividend is paid from it, and its trustees are Ahtna's directors. The spring dividend was paid entirely from the trust's investment earnings. The fall release does not say what funded the $9 payment.

The company has spent the past year in a turnaround. In December 2025, Ahtna Netiye', where most of Ahtna's business activity occurs, named Paul Fioravanti interim CEO. Fioravanti became Ahtna's CEO on May 1.

In spring, Fioravanti described consolidating subsidiaries and said Ahtna hopes to divest Ahtna Marine & Construction Co., a Florida-based dredging and civil construction company. No sale has been announced.

In September, Fioravanti told shareholders that government shutdowns, delayed awards and Small Business Administration activity had pushed contract work later in the year. Through midsummer, he wrote, Ahtna had positive EBITDA, a measure of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, though pre-tax income was slightly negative.

President Michelle Anderson stepped down July 2, and Kathryn Martin was named interim president. Shareholders seated two new directors June 6, and the board elected Linda Pete as chair.