BERLIN (Reuters) -Mercedes Benz said on Thursday it plans to buy back up to 4 billion euros ($4.28 billion) of its shares by 2025 and said shareholders Beijing Automotive Group and Geely had agreed to keep their stakes in the company below 10%.
The carmaker said it will cancel all the shares repurchased during the programme which will start next month. It said Beijing Automotive Group and Geely will keep their stakes below 10% by divesting their shares on a pro-rata basis concurrently with the share buyback.
Analysts have expected the company to announce a share buy back program coinciding with the publishing of its fourth-quarter report, scheduled for Friday, given the company’s high net-cash position and strong free cash flow.
“Most important item for us is if the company finally will announce a share buy back, given the strong automotive net liquidity of (greater than) €25bn we expect for year-end 2022,” analysts at BofA Global Research said.
($1 = 0.9354 euros)
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Holmes)
