Unilever has announced that it has purchased, for a consideration of £715m, the rights left in family trusts by William Hesketh Lever which are convertible in 2038 into 70,875,000 Unilever PLC ordinary shares. The consideration is equivalent to £10.09 per ordinary share and represents a discount of 63% to the closing share price on Friday May 16th 2014.
As a result of this transaction core earnings per share will be enhanced by 2% on a full year basis as the fully diluted share count used in the calculation is reduced by 70,875,000 shares, or 2.4% of the combined Unilever Group total.
Jean-Marc Huët, Unilever CFO, said “I am very pleased that we have concluded this agreement with the trusts. It is good for all our shareholders. It is another step in the simplification of Unilever’s capital structure, making Unilever easier to understand, and eliminating ahead of time the burden of a significant dilution of shareholders’ interests.”