Vodafone commences £1.5bn share buyback programme

Telecommunications giant, Vodafone Group announced on Friday it had launched a share buyback programme for as many as 729.1m shares.

As a result of a two-tranche mandatory convertible bond (MCB) issued by the firm in February 2016, the first tranche of which was set to mature in August, Vodafone embarked on an irrevocable and non-discretionary share buyback programme with the sole purpose of reducing capital to avoid any change in issued shares as the first tranche of the MCB reaches maturity.

A maximum of 729,077,008 shares were to be issued on Friday at a conversion price of £1.98, financed from the $2.5bn in proceeds Vodafone received in December 2016 in the form of Verizon loan notes as partial consideration for the sale of its 45% stake in the American telecoms conglomerate in 2014.

As of 1200 BST, shares had remained steady, up 0.02% from the opening bell to 219.95p.