Oriflame Cosmetics’ board of directors has exercised the authorisations granted by the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to repurchase up to 5,712,113 of the company’s shares or Swedish Depositary Receipts (SDRs), equivalent to 10% of the current share capital (as reported by cosmeticsbusiness.com on 19 November 2012) by instructing management to launch a first share buyback programme with a repurchase notional of SEK350m, which at the prevailing share price is equivalent to approximately 3% of the current outstanding share capital.
The share repurchases, which commenced on 2 January, are to be completed at the latest by 23 April 2013. The purpose, says Oriflame, is to optimise the capital structure and the acquired SDRs will be converted to shares and be cancelled. The board will propose the next annual general meeting to cancel the acquired shares.