Last checked at 15 Nov 2023 07:00
15 November 2023
Essentra plc (the 'Company' or 'Essentra')
Results of General Meeting
and
Update on the Share Buyback Programme
Results of the General Meeting Merger Reserve Resolutions
Essentra are pleased to announce that at the Company's General Meeting held on 14 November 2023, the two resolutions proposed were duly voted upon by poll and were passed by shareholders. The resolutions allow Essentra to move its merger reserve from non-distributable reserves to distributable reserves, subject to Court sanction, as announced on 20 October 2023.
| Resolution | Votes For (Including discretionary votes) | Votes Against | Total Votes Cast (Excluding votes withheld) | Votes Withheld | |||
|
| Number of shares | % | Number of shares | % | Number of shares | % of relevant shares in issue | Number of shares |
1 | Articles of Association | 246,008,086 | 99.97 | 66,135 | 0.03 | 246,074,221 | 84.95 | 31,412 |
2 | Company's Merger Reserve | 246,007,822 | 99.97 | 67,505 | 0.03 | 246,075,327 | 84.96 | 30,306 |
The number of ordinary shares of 25 pence each ('Ordinary Shares') in issue at the close of business on 14 November 2023 (excluding 5,039,265 Ordinary Shares in treasury) was 289,653,603.
Any vote that gave the Chair discretion has been included in the 'For' votes. A vote withheld is not a vote in law and is not counted towards the votes cast 'For' or 'Against' a resolution.
Copies of the resolutions passed at the General Meeting will shortly be available for inspection on the National Storage Mechanism document viewing facility at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism and on the Company's website at www.essentraplc.com.
Update on the Share Buyback Programme
Essentra remains committed to returning a total of £60 million to investors through its ongoing share buyback programme (the "Share Buyback Programme"), which was launched on 29 March 2023. To date, Essentra has acquired 12,259,161 Ordinary Shares, of which 4,141,321 Ordinary Shares have been transferred into treasury, and 8,117,840 Ordinary Shares have been cancelled. To date, purchases made pursuant to the Share Buyback Programme total approximately £22.2 million.
The Share Buyback Programme was initially expected to conclude before 31 December 2023, however as a result of a disciplined focus on capital allocation requirements, including the acquisition of BMP TAPPI, the Share Buyback Programme is now expected to complete 31 December 2024.
The Share Buyback Programme will continue to be conducted in accordance with the general authority to repurchase Ordinary Shares, previously granted by the Company's shareholders at the 2023 Annual General Meeting (the "2023 Authority") and then subsequently be conducted in accordance with the general authority to be sought at the 2024 Annual General Meeting (the "2024 Authority"). The details of the 2023 Authority can be found on the Company's website at https://www.essentraplc.com/en/investors/shareholder-services/agm. The maximum number of Ordinary Shares that the Company is authorised to purchase under the 2023 Authority is 30,079,081. Upon expiry of the 2023 Authority, the maximum number of shares that the Company shall be authorised to purchase will be such number of Ordinary Shares as stated in the 2024 Authority.
Enquiries
Emma Reid, Company Secretary
T: 01908 359100