We’re not going to lie to you – Monday was about as quiet a news day as you’ll see on the ASX. Nice to be able to catch one’s breath with everything that’s been going on both locally and globally, but not so great with regard to content. Here’s a couple of tidbits from Qube and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries to tide you over.
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Diversified logistics and infrastructure company Qube (ASX: QUB) launched a $400 million buy-back on Monday to recycle the proceeds of the sale of its huge Moorebank logistics centre in Sydney.
The company will do this via an off-market buyback program conducted via a tender process that aims to complete in May.
Qube said that following a strong performance in the first half of December half year and the completion of the Moorebank Logistics Park transaction, Qube will return up to $400 million of capital to shareholders over the remainder of the June 30 yeae
Qube CEO Paul Digney, said “The completion of the sale of Moorebank Logistics Park, coupled with Qube’s strong financial performance in achieving record underlying earnings (NPATA) in FY21 and H1 FY22, have contributed to a strong capital position, allowing us to announce this off-market Buy-Back.”
Qube Chairman, Allan Davies added his bit, saying in the release that the buyback program was judged to be the best way to return funds to shareholders.
“The Board has carefully considered how best to return capital to shareholders and we believe that the off-market Buy-Back announced today is the most effective method to return significant value to all our shareholders and optimise our capital structure at this time.”
“It enables a higher number of Qube shares to be bought back in a shorter timeframe and it reduces our share count faster than an on-market buy-back of Qube shares. In turn, a lower capital base and share count supports Qube’s future earnings per share and dividends per share, all things being equal,” Davies added.
Qube says it will repurchase shares under the buyback at a discount of between 5% and 14% to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Qube share price for the five trading days up to and including the closing date of May 13.
The buyback price will comprise a capital component of $1.61 a share and a fully franked deemed dividend equal to the buyback price less the $1.61 a share.
Qube shares rose 1.3% to $3.05, well under the $3.19 level seen at the start of the year.
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Today sees Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (ASX: API) say goodbye to listed life and hello to its new parent, Wesfarmers.
That’s after the Federal Court made orders approving the scheme of arrangement between API and WFM Investments Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wesfarmers Limited, which will now formally acquire all of the shares in API that it does not already own. Wesfarmers owned 19.9% of API’s shares when it launched its bid at $1.55 a share.
The scheme become effective from today (Tuesday) and API shares will be delisted.
More than 95% of eligible API shareholders voted in favour of the takeover offer last week, with major shareholders agreeing to the price, despite earlier concerns from some that the price was too low.
A week today API rival Sigma Healthcare releases its full year results. The company has already told the ASX that it won’t do as badly in the year to January as it had originally forecast.
