Jardine Matheson paying out US$250 million to shareholders via share buybacks
Move follows sale of MCL Land and plan to delist Mandarin Oriental; shares up in early trading
[SINGAPORE] London-listed conglomerate Jardine Matheson intends to repurchase up to US$250 million worth of shares under a proposed share buyback, the company announced on Monday (Nov 3).
Jardine Matheson, which has a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange and owns Hongkong Land and DFI Retail Group , plans to repurchase ordinary shares – all of which will be cancelled.
The buyback is expected to be completed during the course of 2026 and is in line with the company’s capital allocation policy.
Jardine Matheson said the details of the repurchases will be provided to the market via regulatory announcements and published on its website.
This comes on the back of Jardine Matheson’s recent move to delist hotel group Mandarin Oriental – of which it is a controlling shareholder – at US$3.35 per share. It announced in October that its investment holding company Jardine Strategic will acquire the remaining 11.96 per cent of Mandarin Oriental shares it does not yet own.
Hongkong Land in September announced the S$738.7 million sale of its Singapore and Malaysian property arm MCL Land to Malaysia’s Sunway Group.
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The deal is set to bring the total capital recycled by the real estate group since 2024 to US$2 billion – or half of Hongkong Land’s capital recycling target of at least US$4 billion by end-2027.
It also follows DFI’s divestment of its Singapore food business to Macrovalue (Malaysia), a South-east Asian retail conglomerate, for an initial purchase price of S$125 million.
Under the sale, which was announced in March and is set to complete in H2 2025, Macrovalue would fully acquire Cold Storage Singapore from the Jardine Matheson-owned supermarket and retail store operator.
This comprises 48 Cold Storage stores (under the Cold Storage, CS Fresh and Jason’s Deli brands), 41 Giant stores and two distribution centres.
In May, Jardine Matheson announced the appointment of Lincoln Pan as its chief executive-designate, ahead of its group managing director John Witt’s retirement in late-November.
Pan will also be appointed as the chairman of DFI’s board and remuneration and nomination committees as he succeeds Witt, DFI said.
Shares of Jardine Matheson were trading as high as US$60.79 on Monday morning, up US$2.04 or 3.5 per cent from Friday’s closing price.
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