By Paul McBeth
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Tuesday 31st March 2009 |
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Under Contact's profit distribution plan it makes payments to shareholders via a non-taxable bonus shares. Investors who want their payments in cash can elect to have the company buy back the stock at about $5.66 apiece. The shares fell 1% to $5.80 today and are down 16% this year
The result shows that our shareholders want to own more shares in Contact and that they support the investment programme," said chief executive David Baldwin.
Contact wants to preserve cash as it presses on with plans to increase North Island capacity, including the first phase of the Tauhara geothermal project near Taupo, a 200 megawatt gas-fired power station and an underground natural gas storage facility, both near Stratford. The combined cost of the projects exceeds $500 million.
The company purchased 2.6 million shares of the 11.3 million distributed to shareholders via the bonus issue.
Origin Energy, the company's majority shareholder with about 51%, increased its holding a further 0.06% after receiving consent under the Overseas Investment Act.
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