Bridgestone: £859 million invested in share acquisition so far

Last month, Bridgestone Corporation acquired 1.976 million of its common shares. The company reports that the acquisition of these shares cost more than 10.56 billion yen (£70.4 million).

October’s share purchase is part of a programme announced on 17 February. Bridgestone Corporation intends to purchase up to 50 million of its common shares, an amount equal to 6.4 per cent of its issued non-treasury stock shares, in order to “enhance enterprise value by improving capital efficiency.” Up to 150 billion yen (£999.3 million) was earmarked for this purpose.

The buyback began on 20 February, and up to 31 October a total of 27,415,900 shares have been acquired at a cost of 128.95 billion yen (£859.1 million). The programme will continue until 22 December 2017. The acquired shares, along with a further 20 million shares, will be cancelled, effective 19 January 2018.