Drinks company Diageo has started the third phase of its return of capital programme of up to £4.5 billion (€5.4bn) to shareholders.
Under the first two phases of the programme, which were completed on January 31st, 2020, and February 11th, 2022 respectively, Diageo repurchased shares with an aggregate value of £2.25 billion.
Diageo announced on Monday that it has entered into a non-discretionary agreement with UBS to enable the company to buy back shares with an aggregate value of up to £1.7 billion (€2 billion), of which the repurchase of shares with an aggregate value of up to £1.4 billion will be completed by June 30th.
In each case the aggregate value of shares repurchased will be net of any fees payable to or by UBS under the terms of the agreement.
The buying will commence on Monday and will end no later than October 5th. The purpose of the repurchases is to reduce the share capital of Diageo. All shares repurchased under this agreement will be cancelled.
Further execution phases of the programme through share buybacks or special dividends as appropriate given market conditions, will be subject to future announcements, the company said.
