Imperial Brands PLC (LSE:IMB) announced an arrangement with its broker Credit Suisse International to repurchase up to £500mln of its shares between today, 7 October 2022 and the end of next March.
This is the initial tranche of the £1bn share buyback programme the FTSE 100-listed cigarette maker announced alongside a trading statement yesterday.
It said the buyback is in line with its policy to distribute surplus capital to shareholders, having reduced leverage to the lower end of its 2.0-2.5 times net debt to EBITDA target range.
Total capital returns for the full year, including dividends and share buy-backs, are expected to top £2.3bn the tobacco group said yesterday, around 13% of its current market value.
Analysts at Deutsche Baml wondered if the robust statement might be "the point at which the remaining sceptics turn", with Imperial having "materially outperformed over the last year yet scepticism remains high (as the valuation would testify)".