By Business & Finance 
Hibernia Reit, a commercial property company, has recently announced a €25 million share buyback programme in order to reduce share capital.
Hibernia Reit CEO Kevin Nowlan has said the company is in a strong position in spite of the continuing global pandemic. In a note to Euronext Dublin, he said: “Despite the uncertain economic outlook our business is in a strong position. Our rent collection statistics are good and our balance sheet is extremely robust, with a last reported loan-to-value [LTV] ratio of 16.5 per cent.
“This €25 million share buyback is expected to be accretive to net asset value [NAV] per share and earnings per share and will also complete the return to shareholders of the proceeds from the sale of 77 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay started with the €25 million share buyback undertaken last year.”
The programme will continue through to February 2021. The maximum number of ordinary shares to be repurchased under the programme is 68,478,208 and these can be repurchased on either Euronext Dublin or the London Stock Exchange.
Goodbody Stockbrokers will repurchase the shares on the company’s behalf.
Colm Lauder, analyst at Goodbody, said of the buyback programme: “[It’s] a logical use of Hibernia’s liquidity given the wide discount at which it currently trades to net asset value”.
At June 30 Hibernia had net debt of €235m and cash and undrawn facilities of €160m.
