Shareholders in the Jones Group have voted in favour of a management buyout worth £10.4 million (€13.2 million) at an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin.

Surplus cash generated by the sale to the management team, led by Jones chief executive, Mr Pat Nevin, will now be distributed among shareholders.

It is expected this will be done on the basis of between £2.50 and £2.70 per share.

The chairman, Mr Eugene Greene, said the company still had to deal with some "contingent liabilities" before it could say how much it would pay to shareholders. A property owned by the company in Co Kilkenny would also have to be sold, he said.

He said the money would be paid out "in a tax-efficient manner" in a number of tranches, starting in early summer. He said at that stage the company would start to wind down and the board would be restructured.

Mr Greene said the Jones Group, after deciding it no longer had the "scale" to be a publicly quoted company, approached 15 buyers and held intensive discussions with many of them.

He said in the end the management buyout represented the "best value for shareholders".

There were few questions at the e.g.m., although one man said it was impossible for shareholders to make a decision on the offer when the set of accounts for 1998 had not been circulated.

Mr Greene told him trading in 1998 was similar to trading in 1997 and that accounts would be published as normal in March.