Transaction in Own Shares

RNS Number : 5875Z

Witan Investment Trust PLC

27 May 2016

 

27 May 2016

Witan Investment Trust plc - Buyback

Witan Investment Trust plc (the Company) announces that today it has purchased the following number of its ordinary shares of 25 pence each on the London Stock Exchange from Aviva Investors Global Services Limited ("AIGSL"), which was acting as agent in its capacity as investment manager for and on behalf of Friends Life Limited.

Date of purchase:                                                                      27 May 2016

Number of ordinary shares purchased:                                        14,369,238

Price per ordinary share                                                             732.78 pence

The Company intends to hold these ordinary shares in treasury.

Following the above transaction, the Company will hold 14,678,646 ordinary shares in treasury and have 185,392,354 ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares).

This transaction involving the buyback of 14,369,238 ordinary shares from AIGSL is pursuant to the resolutions approved by shareholders at the Company's general meeting held on 26 May 2016. The Company's authority to buyback up to 14.99 per cent. of its own ordinary shares, granted at the Annual General Meeting held on 28 April 2016, is unaffected by the buyback from AIGSL.

The purchase of the foregoing 14,369,238 ordinary shares at a 6.5% discount to net asset value has resulted in an estimated uplift to net assets of £6.7m, amounting to some 3.6 pence per share.  This will be included in the net asset values for 27 May 2016, which will be announced in the usual way on Tuesday 31 May 2016.  The funding for the buyback has been from existing cash holdings and the sale of investments.

In line with the Company's published policy any re-sale of treasury shares will only take place at a premium to the prevailing net asset value per ordinary share at the time of issue and therefore ordinary shares held in treasury do not give rise to a potential dilution to net asset value per ordinary share.

The capital of the Company with full voting rights is now 185,392,354 ordinary shares of 25p each. On a poll, ordinary shareholders have one vote for every £1 in nominal value (i.e. four ordinary shares are required for one vote). Therefore, the total number of voting rights is 46,348,088 and this figure may be used as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights.

Enquiries:

J.P. Morgan Cazenove:

William Simmonds

020 7742 4000

Witan Investment Trust plc

Andrew Bell, Chief Executive Officer

Tel: [phone]

 

END

 

 

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