Reckitt 'A' shares to vanish in clean-up

Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of Mr Sheen, Vanish and Lemsip, plans a share swap to settle a three-year-old anomaly in its share structure.

Its biggest shareholder has exercised its right to exchange 13.7 million "class A" shares into common stock.

The swap will leave Joh A Benckiser (JAB) – a privately owned company that demerged the Benckiser half of the business – with 171 million ordinary shares in the Anglo-Dutch household products giant, or 24 per cent of the listed stock.

The move, which boosts the number of shares in issue by 68.3 million to 705 million, completes a process that started when Benckiser of the Netherlands merged with Britain's Reckitt & Colman in 1999. The anomalous position of the JAB shareholding was the result of tax and domicile issues.

Reckitt Benckiser, whose shares have been one of the three best performers in the FTSE 100 this year, said the exchange will have no effect on calculating earnings per share.

JAB owns the global cosmetics giant Coty and brands such as Rimmel and Explanation. Its shareholding gives it the right to name two non-executive directors to the Reckitt Benckiser board.