Gattaca plc (LON:GATC), the specialist staffing solutions business, today announced its intention to make a series of share repurchases with a view to returning up to £0.5 million to shareholders.
As confirmed in its recent trading update, released on 16 August, the Group exited its 2023 financial year with a strong balance sheet; reporting unaudited statutory net cash at 31 July 2023 of £21m (31 July 2022: £12m). This follows a year of internal improvements and cost rebalancing, as a result of which the Group enters FY24 as a leaner, more efficient and productive business, poised to take advantage of improvements in market conditions.
The Board has remained committed to reinstating its dividend once the Group returned to sustained levels of profitability, and in the Trading Update confirmed its intention to pay a full-year ordinary dividend of 2.5 pence. Alongside the ordinary dividend, the Board also confirmed its intention to provide one-off capital distributions; by way of a special dividend and the Share Buy-back.
Accordingly, the Company today confirms the launch of the Share Buy-back, to repurchase ordinary shares in the capital of Gattaca plc up to an aggregate value of £0.5 million. This Share Buy-back programme follows a similar programme launched in April 2023, which also successfully returned a total of £0.5 million to shareholders.
The Share Buy-back will be operated in accordance the terms of the Company’s general authority to repurchase Ordinary Shares granted by shareholders at its annual general meeting, held on 6 December 2022.
In accordance with the authority granted at the AGM; a) the aggregate number of Ordinary Shares to be repurchased will not exceed 2,782,042 (being the remaining balance of the shareholder authority following completion of the April Buy-back); b) the minimum price which may be paid for each Ordinary Share will be £0.01; and c) the maximum price (excluding expenses) which may be paid for each Ordinary Share will be 105% of the average middle market quotations for an Ordinary Share as derived from the AIM appendix to the Daily Official List of the London Stock Exchange plc for the five business days immediately preceding the day on which the Ordinary Share is contracted to be purchased.
The Company intends to limit (but retains discretion over) the number of Ordinary Shares repurchased daily, such that the aggregate price paid (being the total number of Ordinary Shares repurchased multiplied by the average price paid for each Ordinary Share, including expenses) on any given trading day is expected to not exceed £50,000.
Shareholders should be aware that a purchase of Ordinary Shares by Gattaca plc on any trading day may represent a significant proportion of the daily trading volume in the Ordinary Shares and could exceed 25 per cent. of the average daily trading volume of the preceding 20 business days. Should that be the case, the Company could exceed the pricing and/or volume restrictions as established by the Commission Delegated Regulation 2016/1052/EU (as in force in the UK and as amended by the FCA’s Technical Standards and therefore the Share Buy-back may not fall within the safe harbour provisions of the Regulation.
As part of the Share Buy-back, Liberum Capital Limited, the Company’s broker, has been appointed to purchase the Ordinary Shares as principal. Ordinary Shares purchased pursuant to the Share Buy-back will be cancelled.
