DECATUR, ILLINOIS, U.S. — Archer Daniels Midland Company’s (ADM) board of directors on May 3 approved a change to calendar-year financial reporting, effective Jan. 1, 2013. Historically, ADM has operated on a June 30 fiscal year-end, primarily driven by the U.S. crop year. To accommodate the change, ADM will have an abbreviated fiscal year from July 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2012.

“As ADM has become more global in its operations, much of our statutory and tax reporting and many of our business contracts are tied to the calendar year,” said ADM Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Ray Young. “Moving to calendar-year reporting will help streamline internal processes and eliminate redundancy and waste.”

ADM’s board also declared a cash dividend of 17.5¢ per share on the company’s common stock payable June 7, to stockholders of record May 17.

This is ADM’s 322nd consecutive quarterly payment, a record of 80 years of uninterrupted dividends. As of March 31, there were 659,868,382 shares of ADM common stock outstanding.