Members of Tirlán Co-operative have backed the proposal to allow the spinout of 15m Glanbia shares to shareholders of the co-op at a special general meeting (SGM) held on Friday 4 October.

The single vote, which the Irish Farmers Journal understands gained 80% support from members, also removes the obligation on Tirlán to maintain a shareholding of at least 17% of Glanbia plc.

Tirlán currently holds 75.5m shares of Glanbia, amounting to approximately 29% of Glanbia’s issued shares.

When the spinout proposal was announced on 2 September, Tirlán put the average value to members of the shares at €24,604.

Since then, the price of Glanbia shares on the market has fallen from €15.90 to €14.80, which would imply a current average value of €22,908.

Change

As the spinout is not expected to be completed until after March of 2025, that average value is likely to change again.

The vote will also allow the board of Tirlán to sell its stake in Glanbia to as low a level as it sees prudent in order to add to its investment fund, which was established with 12 million shares in early 2023.

The co-op argued that a vote in favour of the proposal would allow it to protect against volatility, give it the flexibility to manage investments and target higher returns to members.

Should the total number of available shares be added to Tirlán’s already established investment fund, it would give the co-op a total of €613m (at today’s price) which it could use to, in its own words, “help future-proof it for this generation and generations to come”.

Commenting after the result was announced, John Murphy, chair of Tirlán Co-op, said: “This is a transformational outcome for our co-op. Today’s positive vote will provide our ambitious co-op with greater flexibility to better manage our financial investments."