Farmer Business Developments plc has announced that 490 shareholders are to receive a total of €4,401,441 under the voluntary share buy-back scheme which was approved by shareholders at the company’s AGM in June. That is an average of €9,000 per shareholder.

Interest in the voluntary buy-back scheme was greater than expected, with 490 applicants offering to sell a total of 3,826,584 ordinary shares at the buy-back price of €1.53 per share. This was 2.9 times the original €2m fund committed to the scheme.

The board increased the funding to €4.4m to meet the expectations of as many shareholders as possible. They agreed to buy 100% of the shares offered by 421 shareholder while 69 applicants who offered in excess of 10,369 shares will be successful up to that level. A total of 75% of the shares offered, totalling 2,876,759, will be bought back. Payments were made on Friday 19 August.