Next Monday the minority shareholders of Lyons Irish Holdings who spurned Unilever's less-than-generous offer for their shares last year, will hear how the tea company has done in the first half of the year. Given its strength in the tea market and its huge cash-generating ability, those first-half figures from Lyons should be very good.
But of more immediate interest to the minority shareholders will be the Lyons balance sheet and exactly how big the company's cash pile has become. It is simply inconceivable that Unilever will leave this amount of cash idling in Lyons's balance sheet and a distribution to shareholders of some of this cash should be on the cards.
In the past, Lyons has always stated the ritual platitudes about looking for acquisition opportunities. But having disengaged from the Dunkin' Donuts business and concentrating on the core tea business, there is no obvious need for so much cash to be tied up.
Unilever, of course, cannot simply just remove the £50 million-plus cash from Lyons and take it onto its own balance sheet. That could incur the wrath of the minority shareholders. The equitable solution would be for all shareholders to share a special dividend.
Given Lyons's cash flow, there is no reason why that special dividend cannot be extremely generous! Why not pay out £40 million of that £50 million-plus pile?
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