Ryanair in share buyback move

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary RYANAIR is almost halfway through its €750m share buyback programme that it launched earlier this year, it has emerged.

The carrier, which releases full-year results next Monday, launched the buyback in February, indicating it would acquire a maximum of €750m worth of shares for cancellation.

The programme is due to be completed by November. So far, it has bought €352m worth of its own shares under the buyback, based on the average price paid per share in each transaction.

While the buyback will improve the earnings per share figure for the carrier, it has not provided any boost to the share price, however.

The first transaction under the programme saw Ryanair buy almost 256,000 shares on February 6 at an average price of €15.93 per share.

The share price edged higher in the following weeks, with the highest average price per share paid by Ryanair hitting €16.49 on March 20, and €16.45 on April 10. Since then, the shares have steadily declined.

On April 25, Ryanair bought more than 629,000 shares at an average price of €15.57 per share.

Last week, it paid an average of €15.62 per share to buy almost 561,000 shares for cancellation.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the special dividends has been chief executive Michael O’Leary, the largest individual shareholder in the airline.

Ryanair is expected to deliver full-year profits that may be at the upper end of its own €1.4bn to €1.45bn guidance.

Davy Stockbrokers currently has a net profit of €1.42bn pencilled in for the carrier.