Australia’s Foster’s Group today said it plans to spend as much as A$900m on a share buyback.
The off-market buyback of up to 8.5% of its stock follows month’s of speculation of how the group would spend money it made from the float of its leisure and pubs business and the recent conversion of US$400 million bonds into equity.
It had been thought Foster’s would try and spend the money on acquisitions. However, chief financial officer Pete Scott said there were no “attractive” assets on the radar.
Future acquisitions have not been ruled out though. Scott said Foster’s has significant capacity to raise debt if a compelling acquisition target arose in its key markets.
