Daimler to Start New Share Buyback Program
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- Goal of further optimizing capital structure
- 10% of outstanding shares to be acquired for a maximum of euro 6 billion
STUTTGART, Germany, June 17 -- For the further optimization of Daimler's capital structure, the Board of Management of the company decided to carry out a new share buyback program. The Supervisory Board of Daimler AG has approved this decision.
In exercise of the authorization granted by the Annual Meeting of April 9, 2008, the decision of the Board of Management allows for the buyback of 10% or approximately 96.4 million of the outstanding shares for a maximum amount of euro 6 billion. In order to optimize the buyback, shares may also be acquired with the use of derivatives.
Daimler's capital structure is to be further optimized with the goal of reducing the use of equity capital, which is more expensive than debt capital. This will avoid investment decisions being limited by excessively high capital costs.
The share buyback program will be carried out on the stock exchange, whereby derivatives may also be traded outside the stock exchange.
The Board of Management decision limits the period of the share buyback until the Annual Meeting on April 8, 2009.
The shares acquired will later be cancelled without any reduction in Daimler's share capital. It will also be possible to use some of the shares to serve stock option plans.
In line with the decision by the Board of Management, the share buyback will be managed by a bank, which will make its decisions on the timing of individual share purchases and the use of derivatives independently and without any influence from Daimler AG.
The company started its first share buyback program at the end of August 2007. By March 28, 2008, 99.8 million shares had been bought back euro 6.2 billion.