News blog
GNE
- BY: Andrew Hore |
- POSTED: 15/12/2008 |
GNE is not paying a special dividend and is instead retaining its cash to invest in technology businesses.
GNE sold petrol retail chain Petrol Express for £51.66m in September 2008. The original intention was to pay a dividend of 150p a share by the end of January 2009. That would have left GNE with £15m in cash, a fuel card business and some property.
The new strategy is to retain the cash and become a technology-focused investment company. A new circular will be sent to shareholders outlining the proposals. The remaining operations may be sold.
Instead of the dividend GNE intends to buy back shares.
Microgen chairman Martyn Ratcliffe has acquired 15% of GNE and is joining the board. Ratcliffe along with North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust and Patrick Barbour owns 28.7% of GNE. Ratcliffe will become executive chairman if the new investing strategy is approved by shareholders.
In recent weeks Lord Alliance has acquired a 4.4% stake and Michael Cronk a 3.6% stake.
The shares slumped 22.5p to 165p each, valuing GNE at £23.3m – which is below its net asset value.
© 2024 Aim Micro. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
- Browse by issue
- All issues
- Popular tags
- All tags
- AIM Micro feeds
Keep up to date with articles published at AIMMicro.com. Subscribe to AIM Micro RSS Feeds
|