Kerry co-op is to offer an opportunity for members to cash in shares later this year. The Equity Redemption Scheme will be voluntary, with the option to sell some or all shares and is open to all shareholders.

The money paid out to shareholders will be regarded as income and subject to income tax. The co-op owns 6.11 plc shares for each co-op of the existing 3.9m co-op shares. This gives a potential see-through value of €556 for each co-op share. The co-op will determine the multiplier it will use for each co-op share depending on “the costs associated with the scheme”. Kerry co-op owns 13.7% of the shareholding in Kerry Group, worth over €2.2bn. The average shareholding among Kerry co-op’s 13,267 shareholders is about €167,000.