Carnival has been busily purchasing shares in London after striking a deal to carry out a major chunk of its $1bn buyback programme in the UK.

The Miami cruise giant has spent GBP 11.7m ($14.5m) on the shares since last Monday, according to a TradeWinds analysis of data released by the company.

Carnival, which has dual listings in London and New York, has scooped up 300,000 shares so far, buying 50,000 each day.

The transactions followed the announcement of an agreement last week to spend $434m on shares of Carnival plc, as its London-listed entity is known, through 13 July.

Boosting shareholder returns

"The purpose of the programme is to reduce the company's share capital as part of its commitment to increasing shareholder returns through the repurchase of both Carnival Corporation common stock and Carnival plc ordinary shares," the company said of the $1bn programme.

It plans to buy no more than 9 million shares.

Carnival plc had 217 million shares as of 31 October. The share price has increased 9.61% on the London Stock Exchange since beginning the latest round of buybacks.