CVR Energy Announces Special Dividend and Advancement of Renewable Diesel Initiatives

SUGAR LAND, Texas, May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CVR Energy, Inc. (“CVR Energy” or the “Company”) (NYSE: CVI) today announced that its Board of Directors (the “Board”) has determined that the Company will focus on renewable fuels and is no longer interested in acquiring another crude oil refinery. In connection therewith, the Board approved expenditures of up to $10 million to progress its renewable diesel initiatives, including:

• The completion of process design to convert an existing hydrotreater at the Coffeyville refinery to renewable diesel service; and
• The completion of process design and the ordering of certain long-lead equipment for a feed pretreater for the Wynnewood refinery to lower carbon intensity and feed cost. The pretreater design could be expandable to also process feed for the potential Coffeyville refinery renewable diesel conversion.

“For the past few years, we have explored a number of refining acquisitions in PADD 4 and elsewhere. However, given our unwillingness to overpay for assets and our belief that the industry is pivoting towards renewable fuels, we are electing to focus our capital on sustainable initiatives,” said Dave Lamp, CVR Energy’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lamp stated further: “As a result of the Board’s determination to cease efforts to acquire another refinery, we have excess cash on our balance sheet. We are earning very little on this cash and, when we issued our bonds, we bargained for covenant capacity, which will be expiring shortly, to make a distribution of up to $492 million to our stockholders. Because we believe it would be a benefit to our stockholders to exercise this option before it expires, we are announcing today a special dividend consisting of cash and Delek shares.”

The Board has approved a special dividend of $492 million, to be payable in a combination of cash and the outstanding stock of Delek US Holdings, Inc. (“Delek”) currently held by the Company (the “Stock Distribution Portion”), pursuant to a provision in the Company’s Indenture (defined below) under which the Company retained the right to distribute to its stockholders up to $492 million (“Excess Proceeds”) on or before July 26, 2021.   This special dividend will be paid on June 10, 2021 (the “Distribution Date”), to stockholders of record as of the close of market on May 26, 2021 (the “Record Date”), subject to customary conditions.