Tirlán spun out 15m Glanbia shares worth €173m to members on Monday, leaving the co-op holding just over 60m shares in the listed company, equal to a 23.7% stake.

The 11,000 Tirlán members who are now beneficial owners of the Glanbia shares will receive communication from the co-op in the coming days outlining the number of shares they will receive, together with their revised shareholding in the co-op.

In one example, Tirlán showed that a member with 3,000 shares in the co-op would receive 1,340 shares in Glanbia and would have 320 of their co-op shares cancelled, leaving them with 2,680 co-op shares.

Due to recent rule changes there will be no paper share certificates issued, instead ownership of shares is recorded on the electronic register maintained by Computershare Investor Services.

Tirlán members who already have an account with the registrar will see their new Glanbia shares on it from Monday 19 May. Tirlán will communicate with members on how to set up and access their account for those unfamiliar with the service.

In the Tirlán example, based on the closing price on Friday 9 May, the Glanbia shares would be worth €15,423. When Tirlán first presented the spin-out plan to members in September last year, those 1,340 shares would have been worth over €21,000.

Vote

The vote last year on the spin-out also removed the obligation on Tirlán to maintain a minimum shareholding in Glanbia, which means the co-op is now in a position to sell all of its stake in Glanbia, should it wish to.

Tirlán chair John Murphy said that the co-op board was pleased to be in a position to return value to its members.

“It is important that we return value to our 11,000 farm family members, many of whom have invested in their farm businesses and have built our organisation into the world-class business that it is today,” he said.