Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[JRoon71]

RMB, in the UK, you need distributable profits in order to do a share buyback or issue dividends.

Since Amarin is not profitable, there is one other way to do this. They can apply for a "reduction in capital". Essentially, they reduce their capital base by distributing cash they have on the books that was previously raised through issue of stock.

Since they are not profitable, it is up to the UK governing body (similar to SEC?) to approve. The approval process is based on a review of Amarin's books to determine if they will still have adequate capital to pay all creditors on an ongoing basis. In other words, they don't want Amarin paying a dividend or buying back shares, and then go bankrupt.

So the company does not have "carte blanche" to buy back as much as they want, because regulators want them to maintain adequate cash on hand.