Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian oil and gas producer Woodside’s A$2.86-billion plan to buy back shares from giant Royal Dutch Shell failed on Friday, after the company was unable to secure shareholder approval.
A 75% vote was required for the buy-back to continue, under which Woodside would have bought back some 78.3-million of its shares, at a price of A$36.49 a share.
However, Woodside was only able to secure a 72% vote in favour of the resolution, while 28% of the company’s shareholders voted against the resolution, and the remainder abstained.
In June this year, Shell announced that it would sell 156.5-million shares in Woodside, valued at about $5-billion on an after-tax basis. The sale, which represents 19% of Woodside’s issued share capital, would be through an underwritten sell-down to equity market investors and the now-defunct selective share buy-back by Woodside.