Consistent execution against the December 2018 Capital Markets Day shareholder remuneration policy
At the occasion of the December 2018 Capital Markets Day, we reconfirmed our leverage framework, maintained at 3.5x to 4.5x Net Total Debt to Consolidated Annualized Adjusted EBITDA ("net total leverage"). In the absence of any material acquisitions and/or significant changes in our business or regulatory environment, we intended to stay around the 4.0x mid-point through an attractive and sustainable level of shareholder disbursements. As part of our capital allocation framework, we aimed to distribute between 50% and 70% of the prior year Adjusted Free Cash Flow to shareholders through intermediate and final dividends. Within the boundaries of the aforementioned net total leverage framework, and in absence of any of the above factors, the remaining part of our Adjusted Free Cash Flow could be considered for incremental share buy-backs, extraordinary dividends, deleveraging, accretive acquisitions or a combination thereof.

In both 2019 and the first half of 2020, we consistently delivered against the aforementioned shareholder remuneration policy, returning a total gross dividend of €1.8750 per share to shareholders. This consisted of a €0.57 gross intermediate dividend per share in December 2019 and a gross €1.3050 dividend per share in May 2020. Totaling €205.1 million in aggregate, this represented approximately 53% as calculated as a percentage of our FY 2019 Adjusted Free Cash Flow. In addition, we repurchased 1.1 million shares as part of the Share Repurchase Program 2020 for an aggregate amount of €34.4 million.

Updated policy with a gross dividend per share floor of €2.75, balancing attractive shareholder distributions and optionality for future value-accretive M&A opportunities
Considering the robust underlying Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion and the healthy Operating Free Cash Flow outlook for both FY 2020 and the 3-year period over 2018-2021, the board of directors decided at the end of October 2020 to firm up the existing shareholder remuneration policy. Our new policy balances attractive shareholder distributions with optionality for value-accretive M&A opportunities in the future. While the 4.0x net total leverage target has been reaffirmed in the absence of any material acquisitions and/or significant changes in our business or regulatory environment, the board of directors introduced a dividend floor of €2.75 per share (gross) going forward. This dividend floor assumes no significant changes in our business or regulatory environment and replaces the previously communicated 50-70% pay-out range. With that, the board of directors intends to commit a larger share of the Adjusted Free Cash Flow towards recurring dividends. The remainder of our Adjusted Free Cash Flow may still be considered for accretive acquisitions, extraordinary dividends, incremental share buy-backs, deleveraging or a combination thereof.

The April 2021 AGM approved the payment of a gross dividend of €1.3750 per share, to be paid in early May
In December 2020, we paid a gross intermediate dividend of €1.3750 per share (€150.0 million in aggregate), representing half of the aforementioned dividend floor. Yesterday, shareholders approved the payment of the remaining gross dividend of €1.3750 per share (€150.2 million in total¹). The dividend will be paid on May 5, 2021 with the Telenet shares trading ex-dividend on Euronext Brussels as of May 3, 2021. Including the payment of this dividend, the total gross dividend paid equals €2.75 per share, or €300.2 million in aggregate, up 47% versus the dividend per share paid over the FY 2019 Adjusted Free Cash Flow. With that, we continue to execute on our anticipated shareholder remuneration timeline including the aforementioned dividend floor.

¹ Based on 109,243,261 dividend-entitled shares outstanding at the date of this release