Boral, Australia's largest manufacturer of building products, has announced it will be buying back approximately $236m worth of its own shares.
The on-market share buy-back program will buy back up to 5% of the company’s issued capital or approximately 39 million ordinary shares over the next 12 months.
The buy-back follows a number of successful transactions in the past 12 months for Boral, which have reduced the building products Group’s net debt and positioned the company with a sound balance sheet and financial position to conduct the share buy-back.
Boral’s CEO and Managing Director, Mike Kane, said the buy-back reflected the company’s commitment to its shareholders.
“This buy-back reflects Boral’s commitment to efficient capital management and delivering improved returns to shareholders,” he said.
“At the same time, we are maintaining flexibility to respond to changes in market conditions and to take advantage of appropriate growth opportunities that may present in the future.”
The buy-back of shares also follows a number of recent key events for Boral. These included the sale this month of its Western Landfill business in Melbourne to Transpacific Industries for which it received $150m upfront, and the approval by the ACCC in December of a joint venture between CSR and Boral to manufacture clay bricks.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Boral is likely to make an acquisition in the US in a move to bolster its earnings outside of Australia.
