I have some ASML shares. What will happen after today? Is it like a share buy back but every shareholder will get EUR 2.04 but have 1/9 less shares? Thanks Regulatory filing --------------------- On May 31, 2007 the Company announced that it will further optimize its capital structure through a return of approximately EUR 960 million to shareholders in combination with a reverse stock split. The Company believes that, within the current Dutch regulatory tax environment, the most efficient method to return cash to shareholders is through a capital repayment. This capital repayment will be effected by paying a total cash distribution of approximately EUR 960 million to the shareholders as repayment of nominal capital of EUR 2.04 per ordinary share, and will be combined with a subsequent reduction of the number of outstanding ordinary shares by 11% through a 8 for 9 reverse share split. This procedure is also know as Synthetic Buy Back. In order to implement this Synthetic Buy Back, the Company proposes to increase the nominal value of each ordinary share from EUR 0.02 to EUR 2.12. The nominal value will be increased at the expense of the share premium reserve (agioreserve) of the Company and requires an amendment of the Articles of Association. This amendment is proposed under item 2. Secondly, it is proposed to decrease the nominal value of each ordinary share from EUR 2.12 to EUR 0.08, which results in a repayment of nominal capital to shareholders of EUR 2.04 per ordinary share. The amendment of the Articles of Association to achieve this is proposed under item 3
Sounds to me like they’re doing a 1-time dividend combined with a reverse stock split. Together these have the same effect as buying back 1/9 of the outstanding shares, so they call it a “synthetic buyback”. can you check the math – I didn’t see the number of outstanding shares. …just a guess…