Palace Capital announces £22m tender offer

Palace Capital announced a proposed return of capital to shareholders on Thursday, by way of a tender offer.

The London-listed company said the offer would see qualifying shareholders invited to tender some or all of their ordinary shares, with up to 8,667,760 shares eligible for purchase for a total cash consideration of up to £21.67m.

It said the initiative followed the share buyback authority granted by shareholders on 4 December.

Under the terms of the offer, qualifying shareholders would have a guaranteed entitlement to tender three shares for every 13 held, representing 23% of their holdings as of the record date.

The tender offer would be conducted at a price of 250p per share - an 11.1% premium to its share price as of 11 June.

A circular outlining the background, reasons, and terms of the tender offer, along with the board's recommendation, would be published shortly and made available on the company’s website.

The board said the offer remained conditional on shareholder approval at an upcoming general meeting.

It said the tender offer would open on 14 June and close at 1300 BST on 9 July.

Successful tenders would result in the cancellation of the shares, reducing the issued share capital to 28,892,535 shares.

The board said it unanimously supported the offer, considering it in the best interest of all shareholders.

“The tender offer announced today represents a further milestone in the board's strategy of returning cash to shareholders, following the £21.9m cash returned through buybacks since July 2022,” said executive chairman Steven Owen.

“The format of the tender offer provides good flexibility, enabling those qualifying shareholders who wish to reduce their holdings an opportunity to do so at a market-driven price with a premium, whilst permitting those who wish to retain their current investment in the company to do so.

“With further property sales due to complete later in the year, we anticipate making further capital returns through an additional tender offer as we continue to deliver on our strategy for shareholders.”

At 0941 BST, shares in Palace Capital were up 4.73% at 232.65p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.