E-Malt.com News article: 1957

Australia: Foster's Group, the beer and wine maker, said it planned to buy back up to 123 million more shares on market over the next several months, under the Reuters report from December 22. Foster's Group, up 2.5 %, was the most active stock and was among the five highest climbing stocks in the top 200 stocks after buying back A$668 million ($495 million), or 8.2 %, worth of its shares off market and flagging further buybacks.

The company announced that it would go to its shareholders in March next year to obtain approval to buy back another 100m shares through another on-market buyback program. The buybacks are being partly funded by the sale recently of Foster’s pubs unit, Australian Leisure & Hospitality.

Having announced the program at its recent annual meeting, Foster’s bought all of the shares, which had been tendered at the buyback price of A$4.00. It had received tenders for around 453.7m shares, of which 167.1m agreed with the buyback price.

Foster’s also announced that it will continue the on-market program, which had been put on hold until the off-market program had been completed. This buyback will restart on 23 December, aiming to repurchase an additional 23m shares. On completion of this, the company will have repurchased 10% of Foster’s issued shares.


23 December, 2003