ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska's 12 regional Native corporations doubled revenues from 2004 to nearly $7 billion in 2008.
The figures are in a report from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Regional Association presented Monday to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.
Association leader Will Anderson said the 12 firms and affiliated companies employed more than 35,000 people worldwide with an average compensation of $47,000. About 40 percent of the jobs were in Alaska.
The Anchorage Daily News reports the 1971 law that created the corporations to settle land claims turned the corporations into dominant players in Alaska business – mining, construction, oil and gas development, and government contracting.
All of the regional corporations and nine other Alaska Native organizations are on a list of the 49 biggest Alaska-based companies based on revenue, compiled by the Alaska Business Monthly, Anderson said.
Alaska Native corporations have been buffeted lately by complaints that they aren't producing enough benefit for their shareholders.
The 12 firms paid a combined $171 million in shareholder dividends in 2008, an increase of 37 percent from the previous year, according to the report. The dividend payouts accounted for 66 percent of their combined profits in 2008.
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Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com