Adidas announced the start of the second tranche of its current multi-year share buyback program announced in March 2018. The company intends to repurchase own shares worth around €800 million in 2019.
In a first tranche in 2018, the company bought back 5.1 million shares, corresponding to 2.5 percent of the company’s share capital, for a total consideration of €1 billion. The average purchase price per share was €196.45.
In total, under the current program, Adidas plans to buy back own shares for up to €3.0 billion between March 2018 and May 2021. The buyback program complements Adidas’ stated policy to pay an annual dividend to shareholders in the range of 30 percent to 50 percent of net income from continuing operations.
As previously announced, Adidas intends to cancel the majority of the repurchased shares. A total of 8.8 million treasury shares, which resulted from the current and the previous buyback program, were cancelled in October, reducing the company’s share count and stock capital correspondingly.
