Benchmark Holdings will pay £31.9m to stakeholders in buy-back offer
Purchase and cancellation of almost 128 million shares raises percentage ownership of biggest three shareholders from 71% to 85.6%
Two Norwegian family companies and a UK-based investment company will own a combined 85.6% of aquaculture biotechnology and nutrition company Benchmark Holdings after a share buy-back by the firm.
Benchmark, which is transitioning from a public listed company to a private company, offered to buy back a maximum of 226,934,325 ordinary shares at 25p per share in a ‘tender offer’ which could have cost it up to £56.7 million. When the offer closed yesterday, valid tenders had been received for 127,720,171 shares worth a total of £31.9m at the offer price.
The shares bought back by Benchmark will be cancelled.
The company’s big three shareholders – Ferd AS, JNE Partners LLP, and Kverva AS – agreed not to take part in the tender offer. Before the tender offer, the three companies owned 71% of Benchmark. Because the shares bought back by Benchmark will be cancelled and the shareholdings of the big three haven’t changed, that percentage will increase to 85.6%.
This is how it is split:
- Ferd AS owns almost 192m Benchmark sares, giving it a stake of 31.2%
- JNE owns more than 169m shares through two funds, giving it a stake of 27.6%
- Kverva AS owns more than 163m, a stake of 26.9%
Genetics sale
Benchmark made the buy-back offer to return money to shareholders after selling its genetics division to Denmark-headquartered life sciences investor Novo Holdings for £230 million.
The company made gross proceeds of £194m from the sale, and was left with net cash reserves of £117m after the repayment of loans and other debts. It proposed paying £95m of that to shareholders through a combination of the £56.7m share buy-back and a special dividend for investors who chose to stick with the company when it went private.
“With the completion of the tender offer, the company expects to be able to conclude its discussions with Oslo Børs on the final timetable for the cancellation of the trading of its shares from Euronext Oslo,” Benchmark said in a statement today.
“A separate announcement confirming the timetable for the cancellations of admissions to trading on AIM (London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market) and Euronext Oslo will be released in due course.”
