Читать книгу Corporate Actions - A Concise Guide - Francis Groves - Страница 18

Otherwise known as a bonus issue or a capitalisation issue, this is the issue of more shares to the shareholders in proportion to their existing shareholdings at no charge. The purpose of a bonus issue is normally to reduce a company’s retained earnings (reserves) in proportion to its share capital. ^[19]

The effect of a bonus issue on the issuer’s market capitalisation is to leave it (and the value of each shareholders’ holdings) unchanged. The number of shares in issue goes up but the value of each share goes down. Normally, the dividend will be adjusted downwards to give the shares the same dividend yield as before.

For some markets (including the UK) the effect of reducing the price of individual shares can be advantageous as a very high price for shares is thought to put off investors.

In the US a scrip or bonus issue is known as a share split.