Catena Media shareholders have backed a plan to authorise a share buyback scheme as the affiliate business seeks flexibility amid a busy period of expansion.
At an extraordinary general meeting in Malta, it was resolved to approve the board of directors’ proposal to grant the business authorisation to acquire its own shares as outlined in May.
The Nasdaq Stockholm-listed group’s board proposed the buyback scheme to provide flexibility as regards the possibilities to distribute capital to its shareholders and to promote more efficient capital usage, including through the cancellation of these shares following their acquisition by the company should the board of directors wish to do so at a later date.
Under the plans agreed, any acquisition of Catena shares will take place exclusively on Nasdaq Stockholm market and may take place at any point up until the Annual General Meeting in 2022.
The group may only acquire up to 10% of its total issued share capital, and in no event may it repurchase more than 7,039,215 of its total 71,743,726 shares.
Finally, repurchase of shares may only take place at a price within the price interval, on any occasion, recorded on Nasdaq Stockholm, which refers to the interval between the highest buying price and the lowest selling price.
Catena posted record revenue and earnings in the first quarter of its 2021 financial year after what it described as an “exceptional” performance in North America and other key global markets.
Revenue for the three months to 31 March amounted to €40.7m (£35.1m/$49.8m), which was 52.4% higher than the €26.7m generated in the opening quarter of last year.
Search revenue in Q1 totalled €38.4m, up 60.7% on last year, though paid revenue was down 3.0% to €2.3m, while Catena did not generate any revenue from subscriptions in Q1 of 2021.
In May, Catena acquired US-facing online sports affiliation business Lineups.com for $39.6m. For the 12 months to April 30, 2021, Lineups.com reported $7.5m in sales, with its sales in the first quarter of 2021 equating to approximately 10% of Catena’s total revenue.
Last month, Catena issued senior unsecured floating rate bonds in an initial amount of €55m on Nasdaq Stockholm.
