Imperial Brands to repurchase £625m in second buyback tranche

(Sharecast News) - Tobacco giant Imperial Brands said on Thursday that it will repurchase up to £625.0m shares as part of its ongoing multi-year buyback programme. Imperial Brands said the purpose of its share buyback programme was to deliver "a material reduction" in its capital base over time, which it expects, together with its "progressive dividend policy", to provide an "ongoing source of shareholder returns".

The FTSE 250-listed group stated its share repurchase programme was in line with its unchanged capital allocation framework and consistent with its policy of distributing surplus capital to shareholders, while maintaining year-end leverage at the lower end of its 2.0-2.5x net debt to underlying earnings target range.

Imperial noted that the first £625.0m tranche of the current share repurchase programme has already been completed and said in order to execute the second tranche of the programme, it has entered into an irrevocable and non-discretionary arrangement with Barclays Capital Securities to repurchase up to £625.0m of its shares before 29 October.

"Under this arrangement, Barclays will act as riskless principal and will make decisions under the programme independently from the company. Purchases may continue during any closed period to which the company is subject. The purpose of the share repurchase programme is to reduce the share capital of Imperial Brands. All shares repurchased as part of this arrangement will be cancelled," said Imperial.

As of 1120 BST, Imperial Brands shares were up 0.23% at 3,081.0p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com