A huge one-off hit from the new tax reforms saw energy infrastructure giant Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI) swing to a loss in the fourth quarter.
Kinder – which owns dozens of gas and oil pipelines and terminals – posted a quarterly loss of almost US$1bn after it took a one-time tax charge of US$1.4bn.
Without that initial tax payment, the Houston-based company would’ve earned a profit of almost US$400mln, Kinder said.
The tax cuts are expected to boost companies’ profits in the long run, but several firms have already sad that they will have to take a big one-off hit due to the revaluation of certain assets.
Among those to post a heavy loss was investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which said it lost the best part of US$2bn in the fourth quarter due to a US$4bn tax charge.
Kinder announced it will pay a dividend of 12.5 cents per share for the fourth quarter, taking the total dividend for 2017 up to 50 cents. It expects that to rise to 80 cents in 2018.
“Kinder Morgan thrived in 2017,” said executive chairman Richard Kinder.
“We had very good financial performance despite facing continued strong headwinds (including an epic rain event), we strengthened the balance sheet beyond our original projections, and we announced our plan to return value to shareholders through an increasing dividend and a $2 billion share repurchase program.”
The stock fell 2.8% to US$19.00 in early trading on Thursday.