Consolidation Loser??

srt_3

Hi,
I have held shares in Reed Elsevier for some years and recently had my shares "Consolidated" following the companies sale of its Education branch in the US. Prior to this I had a holing of 1256 shares. After the consolidation I now hold 1087. I received a "special dividend as a part of the sale process and within the letter to shareholders it implies (I think) that the remaining unconsolidated shares would be sold and returned to me at some point in time. There is a letter of explaination on Reeds website. I asked my share managers (Selftrade) what is happening to my 169 "lost" shares and have been told that this was why I received the special dividend! I am sure that is not correct as the worth of the shares (169) at that time was around £1014.00 That is just a £15.92 improvement.
The special dividend was calculated at £1029.92. Something does not seem right here Does anyone have a clue? tia
Stuart.

McSaver

seems like the company you have shares in has bought back shares from you for £15.92 more than they were worth at the time you sold them back to them.

webseek

You are correct. The share consolidation is directly related to the special dividend. The loss of share and their value should be equal to the special divident, so market changes aside, your total value of shares and dividend once you recieve the check should be equal to the value of your shares just prior to the dividend.

In other words the dividend is not that special. They are in essence buying back some of your shares.