Ascential has announced plans to return up to £850m to shareholders across three initiatives part of a strategy to optimise returns.

The British media-to-media company will launch a tender offer to acquire up to £300m in Ascential shares, equating to over 95 million shares, priced at between 315 pence and 331 pence.

The tender offer will be determined via a Dutch auction.

The group will also launch a special dividend of at least £450m, and will look to acquire £100m of Ascential shares through on-market share buyback programmes.

Should the tender offer be undersubscribed, Ascential has stated that the special dividend would be adjusted to ensure a total return of £750m across the tender offer and the special dividend.

Any shares that are repurchased would be cancelled in order to reduce Ascential’s share capital.

The firm said that a share consolidation will take place on 20 May, following the tender offer closing and the expected declaration of the special dividend, which is intended to "maintain the comparability of Ascential's share price and per-share metrics before and after special dividend to reflect the value that will be returned to shareholders".

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