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Butyl acetate, an acetate ester that is a solvent used in inks, pharmaceuticals and perfume; ?
Formaldehyde, paraformaldehyde and formcels, which are primarily used to produce adhesive resins for plywood, particle board, coatings, POM engineering resins and a compound used in making polyurethane; and ?
Other chemicals, such as crotonaldehyde, which are used by the Nutrinova business for the production of sorbates, as well as raw materials for the fragrance and food ingredients industry.
Sales from solvents and derivatives products amounted to 12%, 11% and 10% of our consolidated net sales for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.  ?
Geographic Regions The following table illustrates net sales by destination of the Acetyl Intermediates segment by geographic region.
Net Sales to External Customers by Destination — Acetyl Intermediates
## Table 0 ##
(1) Excludes inter-segment sales of $468 million, $400 million and $383 million for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively.  ?
Customers Acetyl Intermediates markets its products both directly to customers and through distributors.
Acetic acid, VAM and acetic anhydride are global businesses which have several large customers.
Generally, we supply these global customers under multiyear contracts.
Acetic acid, VAM and acetic anhydride customers produce polymers used in water-based paints, adhesives, paper coatings, polyesters, film modifiers, pharmaceuticals, cellulose acetate and textiles.
We have long-standing relationships with most of these customers.
Solvents and derivatives are sold to a diverse group of regional and multinational customers under multi-year contracts and on the basis of long-standing relationships.
Solvents and derivatives customers are primarily engaged in the production of paints, coatings and adhesives.
We manufacture formaldehyde for our own use as well as for sale to a few regional customers that include manufacturers in the wood products and chemical derivatives industries.
The sale of formaldehyde is based on longand short-term agreements.
Specialty solvents are sold globally to a wide variety of customers, primarily in the coatings and resins and the specialty products industries.
These products serve global regions in the synthetic lubricant, agrochemical, rubber processing and other specialty chemical areas.  ?
Competition Our principal competitors in the Acetyl Intermediates segment include Atofina S. A. , BASF AG, BP PLC, Chang Chun Petrochemical Co. , Ltd. , Daicel Chemical Industries Ltd. , The Dow Chemical Company, Eastman Chemical Corporation, E. I.  DuPont de Nemours and Company, LyondellBasell Industries, Nippon Gohsei, Perstorp Inc. , Jiangsu Sopo Corporation (Group) Ltd. , Showa Denko K. K. , Kuraray Co.  Ltd.  and other Chinese producers.
Other Activities Other Activities primarily consists of corporate center costs, including financing and administrative activities such as legal, accounting and treasury functions, interest income and expense associated with our financing activities, and our captive
Korea Engineering Plastics Co. , Ltd.
Founded in 1987, KEPCO is the leading producer of POM in South Korea.
KEPCO is a venture between Celanese's Ticona business (50%), Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc.  (40%) and Mitsubishi Corporation (10%).
KEPCO has polyacetal production facilities in Ulsan, South Korea, compounding facilities for PBT and nylon in Pyongtaek, South Korea, and participates with Polyplastics and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc.  in a world-scale POM facility in Nantong, China.
Polyplastics Co. , Ltd.  Polyplastics is a leading supplier of engineered plastics in the Asia-Pacific region and is a venture between Daicel Chemical Industries Ltd. , Japan (55%), and Celanese's Ticona business (45%).
Established in 1964, Polyplastics is a producer and marketer of POM and LCP in the Asia-Pacific region, with principal production facilities located in Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and China.
Fortron Industries LLC.
Fortron is a leading global producer of polyphenylene sulfide (“PPS”), sold under the Fortron?
brand, which is used in a wide variety of automotive and other applications, especially those requiring heat and/or chemical resistance.
Established in 1992, Fortron is a limited liability company whose members are Ticona Fortron Inc.  (50% ownership and a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNA Holdings, LLC) and Kureha Corporation (50% ownership and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kureha Chemical Industry Co. , Ltd.  of Japan).
Fortron's facility is located in Wilmington, North Carolina.
This venture combines the sales, marketing, distribution, compounding and manufacturing expertise of Celanese with the PPS polymer technology expertise of Kureha.
China acetate strategic ventures.
We hold an approximate 30% ownership interest in three separate acetate production ventures in China.
These include the Nantong Cellulose Fibers Co.  Ltd. , Kunming Cellulose Fibers Co.  Ltd.  and Zhuhai Cellulose Fibers Co.  Ltd.
The China National Tobacco Corporation, the Chinese state-owned tobacco entity, controls the remaining ownership interest in each of these ventures.
With an estimated 30% share of the world's cigarette production and consumption, China is the world's largest and fastest growing area for acetate tow products according to the 2009 Stanford Research Institute International Chemical Economics Handbook.
Combined, these ventures are a leader in Chinese domestic acetate production and are well positioned to supply Chinese cigarette producers.
In December 2009, we announced plans with China National Tobacco to expand our acetate flake and tow capacity at our venture's Nantong facility and we received formal approval for the expansions, each by 30,000 tons, during 2010.
Since their inception in 1986, the China acetate ventures have completed 12 expansions, leading to earnings growth and increased dividends.
Our Chinese acetate ventures fund their operations using operating cash flow.
During 2011, we made contributions of $8 million related to the capacity expansions in Nantong and have committed contributions of $9 million in 2012.
In 2010, we made contributions of $12 million.
Our Chinese acetate ventures pay a dividend in the second quarter of each fiscal year, based on the ventures' performance for the preceding year.
In 2011, 2010 and 2009, we received cash dividends of $78 million, $71 million and $56 million, respectively.
Although our ownership interest in each of our China acetate ventures exceeds 20%, we account for these investments using the cost method of accounting because we determined that we cannot exercise significant influence over these entities due to local government investment in and influence over these entities, limitations on our involvement in the day-to-day operations and the present inability of the entities to provide timely financial information prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“US GAAP”).  ?
Other Equity Method Investments InfraServs.
We hold indirect ownership interests in several InfraServ Groups in Germany that own and develop industrial parks and provide on-site general and administrative support to tenants.
The table below represents our equity investments in InfraServ ventures as of December 31, 2011:
## Table 1 ##
PART II Item 5.
Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities Market Information Our Series A common stock has traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CE” since January 21, 2005.
The closing sale price of our Series A common stock, as reported by the New York Stock Exchange, on February 3, 2012 was $51.16.
The following table sets forth the high and low intraday sales prices per share of our Series A common stock, as reported by the New York Stock Exchange, for the periods indicated.
## Table 2 ##
Holders No shares of Celanese’s Series B common stock and no shares of Celanese’s 4.25% convertible perpetual preferred stock (“Preferred Stock”) are issued and outstanding.
As of February 3, 2012, there were 44 holders of record of our Series A common stock.
By including persons holding shares in broker accounts under street names, however, we estimate we have approximately 42,750 beneficial holders.
On February 1, 2010, we delivered notice to the holders of our Preferred Stock that we were calling for the redemption of all of our 9,600,000 outstanding shares of Preferred Stock.
Holders of the Preferred Stock were entitled to convert each share of Preferred Stock into 1.2600 shares of our Series A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share, at any time prior to 5:00 p. m. , New York City time, on February 19, 2010.
As of such date, holders of Preferred Stock had elected to convert 9,591,276 shares of Preferred Stock into an aggregate of 12,084,942 shares of Series A common stock.
The 8,724 shares of Preferred Stock that remained outstanding after such conversions were redeemed by us on February 22, 2010 for 7,437 shares of Series A common stock, in accordance with the terms of the Preferred Stock.
In addition to the shares of Series A common stock issued in respect of the shares of Preferred Stock converted and redeemed, we paid cash in lieu of fractional shares.
See Note 16 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for further discussion of the Preferred Stock redemption.
Dividend Policy Our Board of Directors has a policy of declaring, subject to legally available funds, a quarterly cash dividend on each share of our Series A common stock as determined in its sole discretion.
Pursuant to this policy, we paid quarterly dividends of $0.05 per share on February 1, 2011 and May 2, 2011 and similar quarterly dividends during each quarter of 2010.
In April 2011, our Board of Directors approved a 20% increase in the quarterly dividend rate from $0.05 to $0.06 per share of Series A common stock, which equates to $0.24 per share annually.
Pursuant to this policy change, we paid quarterly dividends of $0.06 per share on August 1, 2011 and November 1, 2011.
The annual cash dividend declared and paid during the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 were $34 million and $28 million, respectively.
Our Board of Directors may, at any time, modify or revoke our dividend policy on our Series A common stock.
We were required under the terms of our Preferred Stock to pay scheduled quarterly dividends, subject to legally available funds for so long as the Preferred Stock remains outstanding.
Pursuant to this policy, we paid quarterly dividends of $0.04 per share on our Preferred Stock on February 1, 2010 and May 1, 2010 and similar quarterly dividends during each quarter of 2009.
No dividends were declared or paid subsequent to May 1, 2010 as a result of the Preferred Stock redemption as described above.
The annual cash dividend declared and paid during the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 were $0 and $3

<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="9">Year Ended December 31,</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="3">2011</td><td colspan="3">2010</td><td colspan="3">2009</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$</td><td></td><td>% ofSegment</td><td>$</td><td></td><td>% ofSegment</td><td>$</td><td></td><td>% ofSegment</td></tr><tr><td></td><td colspan="9">(In millions, except percentages)</td></tr><tr><td>North America</td><td>717</td><td></td><td>23</td><td>654</td><td></td><td>24</td><td>501</td><td></td><td>22</td></tr><tr><td>Europe and Africa</td><td>1,110</td><td></td><td>36</td><td>897</td><td></td><td>34</td><td>771</td><td></td><td>35</td></tr><tr><td>Asia-Pacific</td><td>1,166</td><td></td><td>38</td><td>1,046</td><td></td><td>39</td><td>884</td><td></td><td>40</td></tr><tr><td>South America</td><td>90</td><td></td><td>3</td><td>85</td><td></td><td>3</td><td>64</td><td></td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>3,083</td><td><sup>-1</sup></td><td></td><td>2,682</td><td><sup>-1</sup></td><td></td><td>2,220</td><td><sup>-1</sup></td><td></td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td>Ownership %</td></tr><tr><td>InfraServ GmbH & Co. Gendorf KG</td><td>39</td></tr><tr><td>InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knapsack KG</td><td>27</td></tr><tr><td>InfraServ GmbH & Co. Hoechst KG</td><td>32</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td colspan="2">Price Range</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>High</td><td>Low</td></tr><tr><td>2011</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended March 31, 2011</td><td>$45.42</td><td>$38.36</td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended June 30, 2011</td><td>$53.88</td><td>$42.95</td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended September 30, 2011</td><td>$58.68</td><td>$32.49</td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended December 31, 2011</td><td>$47.00</td><td>$29.43</td></tr><tr><td>2010</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended March 31, 2010</td><td>$34.77</td><td>$28.20</td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended June 30, 2010</td><td>$35.83</td><td>$24.84</td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended September 30, 2010</td><td>$33.00</td><td>$23.47</td></tr><tr><td>Quarter ended December 31, 2010</td><td>$41.74</td><td>$31.22</td></tr></table>

Question: what was the percentage growth in the cash dividends from 2009 to 2010
Answer: 0.26786