Nokia completes the first phase of nearly 300 million euros share buyback program

CTOnews.com November 14 news, Nokia official website news shows that the company has now completed the first phase of the stock repurchase program announced in February 2022. Between February 14, 2022 and November 11, 2022, Nokia bought back 63,963,600 shares of the company at an average price of approximately € 4.69 per share.

On February 3, 2022, Nokia announced that its board of directors would initiate a share buyback program to return cash to its shareholders in tranches of up to € 600 million over two years, as authorized by Nokia's annual general meeting on April 8, 2021. The first phase of the share repurchase programme commenced on February 14, 2022 with a maximum aggregate purchase price of € 300 million. This phase has now been completed.

Nokia said the buyback was aimed at optimizing Nokia's capital structure by reducing capital. The Board of Directors of the Company will separately resolve to cancel the repurchased shares. Buybacks are conducted through public trading on the Helsinki Nasdaq regulated market and selected multilateral trading facilities, which differ from the existing equity ratio of Nokia shareholders (directed buybacks).

CTOnews.com understands the buyback reduced Nokia's unrestricted interest by € 300 million. Nokia currently holds 97,786,461 treasury shares. Nokia continues to return cash to its shareholders in instalments of up to € 600 million over two years in accordance with the objectives of the buyback program, subject to continued authorization from the AGM.