Last checked at 
LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer is tooffer its army of private investors a gift card instead of adividend payment as the British retailer rethinks the way itrewards shareholders.
About 30 percent of M&S equity is owned by privateinvestors, one of the highest proportions in the FTSE 100 indexof Britain's leading companies.
A decade ago billionaire Philip Green's attempt to take overM&S, one of Britain's best known retailers, failed partlybecause private investors were implacably opposed to him.
The company said on Monday that in partnership with shareregistrar Equiniti it will invite more than 190,000 of itsUK-registered private investors to join a scheme which enablesthem to use money from dividend payments to purchase an M&SShareholder Card. The cards can be loaded with up to 1,000pounds ($1,510) at a 10 percent discount to face value.
The M&S Shareholder Card will operate much like a gift cardby offering credit that can be used to shop in M&S stores inBritain and online.
M&S shares have performed broadly in line with the FTSE 100index over the last 12 months after a difficult few years forinvestors. While its food business has performed well, itsgeneral merchandise business has reported 14 straight quartersof declining underlying sales.
M&S paid a dividend of 17p last year, a yield of around 3.4percent based on the current share price of 505p.
"Our private investors are also some of our most loyalcustomers and we're continually looking at how we can bestengage this important group of stakeholders," said AmandaMellor, M&S group secretary and head of corporate governance
Equiniti said it hoped that with M&S leading the way itwould be able to extend the scheme to other British companies.
Equiniti will write to M&S private investors over the nextweek to invite them to sign up by June, ahead of the next M&Sdividend payment, expected to be in July 2015.
Participation in the new scheme is optional and thosesubscribing to the card will continue to receive their currentshareholder discount vouchers, which are mailed each January.
M&S shares are up 3.2 percent year-on-year. That compares tothe FTSE 100 index's rise of 2.4 percent.($1 = 0.6621 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Keith Weir)
