Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk has bought back over $100m of its own stock as part of a vast programme allowing it to invest over $1.5bn in its own shares.
The world’s largest shipowner announced on Monday it had picked up DKK 131.9m ($20.1m) of it’s A-shares and a further DKK 559m in its B-shares.
Its combined $105m spend accounts for around one-fifth of the shares it can repurchase in the first tranche running until this November.
Maersk revealed the vast buyback programme when it reported its first quarter accounts in late May and set a 15 month time-frame on the project.
It was announced alongside a new dividend policy which will see the company pay out 30% to 50% of its underlying net result annually.
The distribution comes after Maersk completed the divestment on its key energy businesses, allowing for greater clarity on how to share proceeds from the sale of Maersk Oil to Total.
Maersk’s more liquid B-shares were trading down a little under 1% at DKK 7,938 each at the time of writing on Monday. At this level, Maersk has a market capitaliastion of $36bn.
The share hit a year's high of around DKK 9,000 in April before the first quarter results were disclosed amid a cautious outlook clouded by the US-China trade war.
It slipped to lows of around DKK 7,000 per share in May but has begun to recover this month.
