The Tirlán dairy co-operative has announced plans to further reduce its shareholding in Glanbia Plc, through a combination of a market placing and participation in a share buyback programme. The combined transactions will involve the sale of up to 12 million Glanbia shares, representing approximately 5pc of the stock market listed firm’s issued share capital. Glanbia share’s closed at €22.60 each on Thursday, suggesting total proceeds generated by the sales will add up to around €271m for the farmer owned co-op. Tirlán’s plan is to
execute a so-called share placement to institutional investors via an accelerated book build process. That’s a process whereby investment banks act as “bookrunner” and find large scale buyers to take up the shares. That process is now underway and is being managed by Goodbody Stockbrokers and Rabobank, in cooperation with Kepler Cheuvreux, acting as joint global co-ordinators and bookrunners. In addition, Glanbia Plc itself will “buy back” up to €50m of shares at the same price established through the bookbuilding process. Shares acquired by Glanbia
under this buyback, which is conditional on the share placement, will be cancelled, reducing its overall number of shares in issue. The move echoes a similar combination of share deals done last year and is the latest in a series of transactions that are gradually deepening the separation of the former Glanbia Co-op, now Tirlán, from the global food ingredients business spun out of it decades ago. If the 12 million shares are sold, Tirlán will retain approximately 31.5 million shares in Glanbia and will
still be the single largest shareholder in the plc. Tirlán said the transaction represents “a step in its longer-term journey to have a more diversified investment portfolio”. Tirlán last cut its stake in Glanbia in October last year, when it sold 17m shares to fund the cancellation of a €250m exchangeable bond owed by the co-op. The €250m bond had been issued in January 2022 at an interest rate of 1.875pc to help fund the co-op’s acquisition of full ownership of what is now Tirlán.
That deal cut the co-op’s holding in Glanbia to 17.8pc Farmer-suppliers themselves make up another significant slice of the Glanbia shareholder base, in addition to what they own collectively through Tirlán. In 2024, for example, co-op members voted to spin-out of 15m of Glanbia shares worth, an estimated €222m at the time, to be owned by member individually rather than collectively.
Tirlán, Glanbia, share placement, accelerated book build, share buyback, bookrunners, Goodbody Stockbrokers, Rabobank, Kepler Cheuvreux, farmer co-op, €270m, issued share capital