IR contacts
Registrars and Shareholder enquiries

All administrative enquiries relating to Shareholdings and Loan Stock holdings, such as queries concerning dividend/interest payments, notification of change of address or the loss of Share/Loan Stock certificates, should be addressed to the Company’s Registrars, Capita Registrars, Northern House, Woodsome Park, Fenay Bridge, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD8 0GA (Telephone number: 0871 664 0300 (calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras); Overseas: +44 208 639 3399).

Analysis of ordinary shareholders

At 30 March 2010, the Company had 164,038,149 shares in issue, held by the following classes of shareholders:-
Number of holdingsNumber of shares
’000
Per cent of issued share capital
Directors and related parties954,97434
Other disclosable interests (ie. more than 3%)358,25036
Other institutional shareholdings over 1m shares1227,11417
Private shareholdings and institutional shareholdings under 1m shares1,11523,70013
1,139164,038100

The above analysis is only a guide to the composition of the share register at 30 March 2010. As the Company’s shares are regularly traded on the London Stock Exchange, the above analysis will therefore vary and is provided only as a guide to shareholders.

Share price information

Full analytical information on the Company, including real time share price information, is reported on the Company’s web site at www.mwb.co.uk/mwb/shareprice.jsp and also at hemscott.com/equities/company/cd01184.htm

CREST: London Stock Exchange settlement system

The Company’s listed shares and Loan Stock are settled in CREST, the computerised system of the London Stock Exchange for settling sales and purchases of shares. CREST enables shareholders on the London Stock Exchange to hold and transfer their shareholdings electronically rather than by paper. Shareholders who wish to retain their unit certificates and Loan Stock certificates are still permitted to do so.

Dividends on ordinary shares

Holders of shares are entitled to receive dividends per share as declared from time to time and are entitled to one vote per share at Shareholder meetings of the Company.

No dividends were declared during the year ended 31 December 2009. Shareholders approved implementation of the Cash Distribution Programme and associated cessation of annual revenue distributions at a meeting of shareholders held in May 2002. The Board is continuing to implement the Cash Distribution Programme and to direct disposal proceeds to the repayment of net debt and to the buy-back of shares by the Company, thus returning cash to shareholders.

Since May 2002, the Company has purchased approximately 68.6 million Ordinary Shares under this programme, representing nearly 50% of the issued share capital at the date of its implementation, returning approximately £80.4m in cash to Shareholders.

The Directors envisage distributing further funds to shareholders by means of buy-backs of ordinary shares, tender offers to shareholders, cash distributions, demergers, distributions of assets and similar value distribution programmes in the years ahead.

Payment of interest on listed Loan Stock

Loan Stock holders can request interest to be paid directly into their bank or building society account. To do this, they should contact the Company’s registrars, Capita Registrars, Northern House, Woodsome Park, Fenay Bridge, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD8 0GA (Telephone number: 0871 664 0300 (calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras); Overseas: +44 208 639 3399), for an interest mandate form which should be completed and returned to the Registrars. Payments will then be made directly into the nominated bank account, using the Bankers’ Automated Credit System. The interest vouchers will still be sent to Loan Stock holders concerned. Payments in this manner can be cancelled at any time by the Loan Stock holder and replaced by the issue of cheques for future payments.

Loan Stock interest for the year ended 31 December 2009 was paid as follows:-

2009 Interim2009
Final
Rate of interest paid4.875%4.875%
Ex-interest date (anyone buying Loan Stock on or after this date will not receive the interest for the six month period ending 30 June or 31 December immediately after the Ex-interest date)5 June 20091 Dec 2009
Record date (if Loan Stock is purchased before the Ex-interest date but the holder is not on the Loan Stock register at the record date, the holder can claim the interest from the vendor of the Loan Stock)8 June 20094 Dec 2009
Payment date30 June 200931 Dec 2009

Annual General Meeting of the Company

The 2010 Annual General Meeting of the Company was held at 11.00 am on 10 June 2010 at the Company’s head office, 1 West Garden Place, Kendal Street, London W2 2AQ.

Web pages

MWB Group operates an information-based website at www.mwb.co.uk. Its subsidiaries, Malmaison Limited, Hotel du Vin and MWB Business Exchange Plc, also provide details of their businesses through their websites. These can be found at www.malmaison.com, www.hotelduvin.com and www.mwbex.com. These web facilities are regularly updated.