M&S gift cards instead of dividends

About 30 per cent of M&S equity is owned by private investors, one of the highest proportions in the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s leading companies.

A decade ago billionaire Philip Green’s attempt to take over M&S failed partly because private investors were implacably opposed to him.

The company said yesterday that in partnership with share registrar Equiniti it will invite more than 190,000 of its UK-registered private investors to join a scheme which enables them to use money from dividend payments to purchase an M&S Shareholder Card.

The cards can be loaded with up to £1,000 at a 10 per cent discount to face value.

The M&S Shareholder Card will operate much like a gift card by offering credit that can be used to shop in M&S stores and online.

M&S shares have performed broadly in line with the FTSE 100 index over the last 12 months after a difficult few years for investors.

While its food business has performed well, its general merchandise business has reported 14 straight quarters of declining underlying sales.

M&S paid a dividend of 17p last year, a yield of around 3.4 per cent based on the current share price of 505p.