Tue, Apr 2nd 2024
UBS launches a new USD 2 billion share buyback program, signaling financial health.
UBS is planning share buybacks of up to USD 2 billion until the beginning of April 2026. A corresponding new share buyback program is to be launched, according to a statement issued by the major bank on Tuesday.
Based on last Wednesday’s closing share price and the USD/CHF exchange rate, the USD 2 billion corresponds to approximately 64.1 million registered shares or around 1.85 percent of UBS’s share capital, according to the announcement.
Under the new program, UBS will never buy back more than 10 percent of the share capital.
The UBS registered shares to be acquired are to be repurchased via a separate trading line and canceled by means of a capital reduction.
The decision on this will be proposed at future general meetings, according to the statement. A separate trading line will be opened on the SIX as early as Wednesday (tomorrow) and is expected to remain in place until April 2, 2026.
Following the announcement of the takeover of Credit Suisse, UBS suspended share buybacks for the time being. At the beginning of February 2024, the big bank then announced that it would resume share buybacks in the second half of 2024. There was talk of up to 1 billion in the current year 2024.
In 2026, the buy-backs should even return to the original levels from before the CS takeover, it was stated when the annual figures were presented. In 2022, UBS returned 5.6 billion dollars of capital to its shareholders via share buybacks.
As part of the 2022 share buyback program, UBS acquired a total of almost 300 million registered shares from 31 March 2022 to 28 March 2024 at an acquisition value of CHF 5.01 billion, it was reported on Tuesday. This corresponds to 8.62 percent of UBS’s share capital.
Just under 180 million shares were used for the CS purchase. The cancellation of the remaining 120 million shares bought back is to be decided at the Annual General Meeting in 2025.
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