Shareholders can either opt for a cash dividend or redeemable 'B' shares, or a combination of the two. The B shares will be treated as capital for UK tax purposes. The shares will be marked ex-dividend at 7am on 26 May and shareholders have until 1pm on 27 May to send in their instructions. The default option is the cash dividend which will be payable to all shareholders unless they elect otherwise. If you have any doubt how to complete your election form for the capital return then registrar Capita Asset Services can be contacted on 0371 664 0321. Cheques for the cash dividend and B share redemption will be dispatched no later than 9 June 2016.
The reason why LXB can afford to make such a thumping cash return is because the company has just received £65.2m of initial cash proceeds from the completion of Rushden Lakes, a major new leisure and shopping destination in Northamptonshire, that was pre-sold to The Crown Estate in April 2015. I reckon the valuation uplift on that scheme will add around 10p a share to the company's end September 2015 net asset value of 103.7p and so underpins a significant proportion of the 16.3p a share increase in net asset value which analysts at Stifel Europe predict in the financial year to end September 2016. These are tax free gains, too, as Jersey has a zero corporate tax rate, so shareholders are getting the full benefit of this value creation.