(ELUX) The Electrolux Board has authorized additional share repurchases
in accordance with the authorization by the Annual General Meeting of
Shareholders in April 2003.
The Annual General Meeting authorized the Board of Directors to acquire
and transfer own shares during the period up to the next Annual General
Meeting. Shares of series A and/or B may be acquired on condition that
after each transaction the company owns a maximum of 10% of the total
number of shares. Purchases of shares may only be made through
transactions on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and/or London Stock
Exchange at a price within the prevailing registered price interval.
Following the reduction of the share capital of AB Electrolux in May
2003, the company’s share capital consists of 10,000,000 A-shares and
314,100,000 B-shares, totalling 324,100,000 shares. Electrolux currently
owns 11,937,172 previously repurchased B-shares, corresponding to 3,7%
of the total number of shares.
The purpose of the buybacks is to continually maintain the capability to
adapt the capital structure to the needs of the company, thereby
contributing to increased shareholder value, and to use the repurchased
shares for financing potential corporate acquisitions and the company’s
personnel stock-option programs.
On the basis of the Group’s financial statements for the year 2002, and
the closing price of SEK 152.00 on June 11, 2003, a buy-back of 6.3% of
the shares would have led to an increase in net income per share for
2002 from SEK 15.60 to approximately SEK 16.30 as well as an improvement
of return on equity from 17.2% to 18.8%. Based on the Group’s financial
report for the first quarter of 2002, a buy-back of 6.3% of the shares
would increased the net debt/equity ratio from 0.19 to 0.27.
The Electrolux Group is the world’s largest producer of powered
appliances for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use, such as refrigerators, washing machines, cookers, vacuum cleaners, chainsaws, lawn mowers, and
garden tractors. Every year, customers in more than 150 countries buy
more than 55 million Electrolux Group products for both consumer and
professional use sold under famous brands such as AEG, Electrolux, Zanussi, Frigidaire, Eureka and Husqvarna. In 2002, Electrolux had sales
of SEK 133.2 billion and 82,000 employees.
Further information
For further information, please contact Investor Relations at +46 8 738
60 03. Electrolux Press Hotline is available at +46 8 657 65 07.
