What are DVR shares?
Differential Voting Rights share is a share that has different amounts of voting rights than normal shares. Normally when you own a share of the company you get voting rights proportionate to the amount of shares you own but in DVR’s these rights are different. Normally there are 2 types of DVR’s:
- Higher Voting Rights: You get more votes than the number of shares held. For e.g.- 10 votes for 1 share (Not allowed in India).
- Lower Voting Rights: You get less votes than the number of shares held by you. For e.g.- 1 vote for 10 shares.
Secondly, DVR’s dividend pay-out ratio is higher than that of the normal shares. The shareholder of a DVR share gets more money in case a dividend is declared. For e.g.- Tata Motors declares a dividend of Rs 20 the DVR shareholders will get Rs 21. That is 5% extra.
Difference
Particulars | Tata Motors share | Tata Motors DVR |
Voting rights | 1:1 (Higher) | 1:10 (Lower) |
Dividend Pay-out | Lower | Higher |
Current Market Price | 110.75 | 46.95 |
1-year return | -45% | -47% |
Reasons for companies to issue DVR’s
- Prevention of Hostile Takeovers– The company promoters want to take the decisions and not give control to anyone else.
- Safeguard dilution of voting rights– The company does not want its voting rights to be distributed among many investors
- Bringing in Passive strategic investors- Bringing in passive investors who want to invest and sit for long term.
Benefits of DVR’s
- Higher Dividend Pay-out
- Shares are offered at a discounted price than normal shares.
- It is attractive for retail investors who are not interested in voting rights.
By Yash Tanna ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/yash-tanna-6ba368191 )