adidas completes second tranche of share buyback program; total cash return to shareholders again € 1.5 billion in 2019

adidas today announces the completion of the second tranche of its current multi-year share buyback program initially announced in March 2018. Between January 7, 2019, and December 18, 2019, the company bought back 3.2 million shares, corresponding to 1.6% of the company’s stock capital, for a consideration of € 815 million. The average purchase price per share was € 252.80.

Under the current program, adidas plans to buy back own shares for up to € 3.0 billion in total until May 2021. In the first two tranches a total of € 1.8 billion was successfully deployed. The company intends to continue to buy back own shares in January 2020. As part of the third tranche, adidas plans to repurchase own shares worth up to € 1.0 billion next year.  

The buyback program complements adidas’ policy to pay an annual dividend to shareholders in the range of 30% to 50% of net income from continuing operations. Taking into consideration the dividend payment of € 664 million for the financial year 2018 which was made in May, the total amount of cash the company returned to its shareholders in 2019 was again € 1.5 billion. 

“As we keep executing our strategy ’Creating the New’ and progress toward our 2020 financial ambition, we continue to ensure that our shareholders participate in the company’s success. In 2019 we again delivered on this commitment by returning € 1.5 billion in cash through both dividends and share buybacks,” said adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer.

As announced in March 2018, adidas intends to cancel the majority of the repurchased shares. A total of 8.8 million treasury shares have been canceled since the start of the current program, reducing the company’s share count and stock capital correspondingly.