Dutch retail group Ahold Delhaize has announced that it is starting a €2 billion share buy-back programme, which it expects to be completed before the end of 2018.
Ahold Delhaize says that the purpose of the new programme is to reduce its capital by cancelling all or part of the common shares acquired by the group.
‘Maintaining a balanced approach between funding growth in key channels and returning excess liquidity to shareholders’ is part of the group’s financial framework.
Previous Programme
This announcement comes after Ahold Delhaize successfully completed its €1 billion share buy-back scheme on 29 December 2017.
The company repurchased 577,666 of Ahold Delhaize common shares in the period from 27 to 29 December, at an average price of €18.38 per share, for a total consideration of €10 million.
This brought the total number of shares repurchased under the group’s 2017 buy-back programme to 55,166,939 common shares, for a total consideration of €1 billion.
The scheme was first announced in December 2016, as part of the group’s ‘Better Together’ strategy, which was launched following the merger of Ahold and Delhaize.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
