Pets at Home kicks off £25m share buyback programme

Pets at Home Group announced the start of a £25m share buyback programme on Monday, after committing to one in its preliminary results.

The FTSE 250 petcare retailer said the programme would be conducted in two tranches.

For the first tranche, the company said it had entered into non-discretionary instructions with Numis Securities to carry out the buyback on its behalf.

The tranche would have a maximum total consideration of £12.5m, and would run from 24 June to 27 September.

Pets at Home said the primary aim of the buyback was to reduce the company's share capital, with all purchased shares being cancelled.

The programme would operate under the authority granted by shareholders at the annual general meeting on 6 July last year, which permitted the buyback of up to 48,319,778 shares.

Continuation of the programme would be conditional on the renewal of that authority at the upcoming AGM on 11 July.

The second tranche of the programme was expected to be managed by HSBC Bank, with further details to be announced.

At 1058 BST, shares in Pets at Home Group were up 1.2% at 304.4p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.