Dowlais Group PLC on Thursday said it began a new share buyback programme for up to £50 million, as announced with its annual results two weeks ago.
The automotive engineering spin-off of Melrose Industries PLC, which listed in London back in April, said the scheme began today and will end no later than March 31, 2025.
The maximum number of shares that may be repurchased is 139.3 million. Dowlais shares were up 2.4% to 77.43 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
‘The commencement of the £50 million share buyback today forms part of the board’s focus to maximise the full value of our Group, and its businesses, by considering all available options,’ said Chair Simon Mackenzie Smith.
‘Our confidence in delivering significant value from Dowlais derives from each of our two market leading businesses, GKN Automotive and Powder Metallurgy, having strong fundamentals.’
Dowlais announced the buyback with its annual results, despite seeing loss widen on impairments, but its Automotive division lifted sales.
Pretax loss widened in 2023 to £522 million from £63 million the year before. This resulted from a goodwill impairment of £449 million in 2023 compared to no such cost in 2022.
Revenue, however, rose by 5.7% to £4.86 billion from £4.60 billion a year prior, due to volume growth in its Automotive division, as well as inflation recoveries across the firm.
Dowlais recommended a final dividend of 2.8p per share, compared to none a year ago. This brought the firm’s total dividend to 4.2p per share.
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