Astra shareholders approve 15% dividend for 2021, 4.8 mln share buyback as treasury shares

Astra Industrial Group’s shareholders approved the board's proposal for a 15% cash dividend, or SAR 1.5 per share, for 2021, during the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on April 21, the company said in a statement to Tadawul.  

Shareholders also approved the repurchase of a maximum of 800,000 shares, or no more than 1% of the total issued shares, to retain them as treasury shares for the Employee Shares Incentive Program (ESIP).

Additionally, shareholders ratified the buyback of a maximum of four million shares, or no more than 5% of the total issued shares, to retain them as treasury shares, as the board considers that the share price on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) is lower than its fair value.

The repurchase process will be financed from the company’s cash resources and/or credit facilities.

They also delegated the board of directors to complete the purchase in one or several stages, within a period up to 12 months from the EGM approval date. The company may retain the Treasury Shares for a maximum period of 10 years.

Meanwhile, shareholders elected members of the board of directors for the three-year term started on April 22, 2022.

The new board includes Sabih Masri, Khaled Masri, Mohammad Al Utaibi, Ghassan Akeel, Kamil Sadeddin, Farraj Abuthenain, Abdulkarim AlNafi, Ali AlSubaihin and Khaled AlMana.

They also approved the formation of the audit committee for the new term which will include, Abdel Kariem Al-Nafi, Ayman Yousef and Ibrahim Al-Ghamlas.