Greencore Group plc (‘Greencore’ or the ‘Group’), a leading manufacturer of convenience foods in the UK, today announces its intention to re-commence its share buyback programme (‘Programme’) as part of a £50 million return of capital to shareholders as announced in May 2022.
To date Greencore has returned £35 million of the intended £50 million return of capital.
Following the completion of the recent £10 million share buyback programme between May and August 2023, Greencore today announces that it has entered into non-discretionary arrangements with Goodbody Stockbrokers UC acting as agent to conduct a further share buyback programme and to buy back ordinary shares (the ‘Shares’) for a maximum aggregate consideration of up to £15 million and to make trading decisions under the Programme independently of the Group in accordance with certain pre-set parameters (the ‘Buyback’).
The Buyback will commence today 10 October 2023 and will end no later than 30 March 2024 subject to market conditions. Under the terms of the Programme, the Shares will be repurchased on the London Stock Exchange and will be cancelled.
The maximum number of Shares which can be repurchased under the Buyback is 26,570,928 Shares. The purpose of the Buyback is to reduce the share capital of the Company in line with this announcement. It will be conducted at all times within the limits of the applicable authority granted by shareholders to repurchase the Company’s ordinary shares in issue.
The Buyback will also be conducted within the parameters prescribed by the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 and the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 (also as in force in the UK, from time to time, including, where relevant, pursuant to the UK’s European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019) as well as the applicable laws and regulations of the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
The Programme may be augmented by the purchase of Shares by way of block trades in accordance with the Company’s general authority to repurchase shares.
The Group will make further announcements in due course following any buy back of Shares. There is no guarantee that the Programme will be implemented in full or that any Shares will be bought back by the Group.
Commenting on the launch, Dalton Philips, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“We are pleased to launch our fourth share buyback programme since May 2022 today as part of our wider commitment to return £50 million to shareholders by May 2024. With our strong balance sheet and continued optimism around our business prospects, we retain the ongoing flexibility to return value in the form of buyback, dividends or both and will continue to assess our capital returns policy at the time of year end results.”
