Farmer Business Developments plc has today (Thursday, August 18) announced that it is to pay out a total of €4,401,441 to shareholders under the a voluntary share buy-back scheme.
The payments will reach 490 shareholders through bank transfer or cheque tomorrow.
The scheme was approved by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in June.
The company said that interest in the measure was “greater than expected” with the shareholders offering to sell a total of 3,826,584 ordinary shares at the buy-back price of €1.53/share.
“This was 2.9 times the original €2 million fund committed to the scheme,” company chair, Padraig Walshe, noted.
“In view of this, the board decided to increase funding of the scheme to €4.4 million in order to minimise the scale-back of applications and meet the expectations of as many shareholders as possible.
“This has enabled us to accept the first 10,369 shares offered by each shareholder, which was the preference level in the event of oversubscription indicated at the AGM, and to buy-back a total of 2,876,759 shares or 75% of the amount offered,” he continued.
“I am pleased to announce therefore that we have agreed to buy 100% of the shares offered by 421 shareholders, while 69 applicants who offered in excess of 10,369 shares will be successful up to that level,” Walshe explained.
Farmer Business Developments plc is an investment holding company of 4,400 mostly farmer shareholders. The majority are the original shareholders who came together in the late 1960s to establish the FBD group of companies.
“A typical £50 investor from that time would today hold 10,369 shares in Farmer Business Developments plc.
“If he/she cashed in that investment under the buy-back scheme, they would now receive a payment of €15,865, which comes on top of €16,920 paid in dividends and other returns over the years giving a total return of €32,785 for the €63 (£50) original investment of the retiring shareholder,” Walsh noted.