Employee Share Trust purchase

RNS Number : 1833I

Home Retail Group Plc

14 November 2008

 



14 November 2008

Home Retail Group plc

Employee Share Trust purchase of shares

Home Retail Group has today been informed by the Home Retail Group Employee Share Trust ('EST') that it has purchased 11.4m shares. The shares contribute towards those potentially needed to satisfy share-based incentive scheme awards on vesting.  The purchase, including stamp duty and other transaction costs, represented an average price of 190 pence per share and £21.6m in total; this has been funded from Group cash resources.  The accounting charges relating to the Group's share-based incentive schemes are already expensed to the income statement over the relevant vesting periods.

At 1 March 2008, the EST held 9.2m shares which had been acquired at nil cost as part of the demerger from GUS plc. The purchase of 11.4m shares by the EST further contribute towards the estimate of additional shares required to satisfy awards granted to date.  Dividends on shares held by the EST for this purpose are waived.  Shares held by the EST reduce the weighted average number of shares for basic and dilutive earnings per share calculations, until the time that the EST allocates shares to satisfy awards on vesting.

Enquiries

Analysts and investors (Home Retail Group)

Richard Ashton                 Finance Director                   01908 600 291

Stuart Ford                      Head of Investor Relations

Media (Finsbury)

Rollo Head                                                                  020 7251 3801

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these forward looking statements.

 

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