Sainsbury's kicks off £200m share buyback programme

Sainsbury’s kicked off its share buyback programme on Friday, having announced it on 7 February, aiming to repurchase up to £200m of shares by the end of the current financial year.

The FTSE 100 grocer said the first tranche of the programme, totalling up to £150m, was starting on 26 April and ending on or before 1 November.

It said the tranche would consist of the repurchase of its ordinary shares, with the sole objective of reducing its share capital.

Sainsbury’s said it planned to cancel the repurchased ordinary shares on completion of the programme.

To execute the programme, Sainsbury’s said it had engaged UBS to conduct the buybacks on its behalf.

The programme would operate within the parameters of the authority granted at the annual general meeting on 6 July last year, which authorised the repurchase of up to 236,462,600 shares.

At 0839 BST, shares in J Sainsbury were up 1.53% at 260.54p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.