Shareholders of tyre producer Bridgestone Australia have voted to privatise the company, after more than 50 years as a public entity.
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A shareholders meeting in Adelaide agreed to a $A50m buyback of the company’s minority shareholdings, the website news.com.au reported, adding that the company would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of major shareholder Bridgestone Corporation of Japan.
Minority shareholders hold about 14.5m shares of Bridgestone Australia, while Bridgestone Corp has more than 22m shares, or 60.3%, the report said.
Bridgestone is reported to be offering $3.40 a share, which comprises a return of capital of 50 cents and a dividend of $2.90.
Bridgestone Australia chairman and chief executive Mac Ohashi said the privatisation would give Bridgestone Australia more flexibility to run the business in an increasingly competitive market, news.com.au said.
Bridgestone Australia executive director of finance, Andrew Moffat told the website the privatisation of the company would not affect its daily operations.
He added that Bridgestone Australia was the only part of Bridgestone operations around the world that was publicly listed.
