Italy’s d’Amico International Shipping (DIS) is to begin buying back its shares over the next five years in order to increase its treasury stock and create a long-term incentive plan for employees.
DIS, which is listed on the Borsa Italiana in Milan, will buy up to 34,351,356 of its own shares in the scheme, which will be kept as treasury stock.
It will repurchase another 739,973 shares to be used with its stock option plan for distribution to employees, managers, subsidiaries and contractors. The company is permitted to buy up to 8.5m of its shares for use in the long-term incentive scheme, which received board approval on March 3.
DIS is permitted to pay up to 10% higher or lower than the stock’s official share price reported in the trading session on the day before each individual repurchase transaction is made. At the time of writing, the stock is trading at €0.45 per share.
DIS currently owns 7,760,027 of its own shares, equal to 1.81% of its outstanding share capital. Between January 11 and March 11 this year, it repurchased around 1.18m of its own shares, or around 0.275% of the outstanding share capital, at an average price of €0.467 per share or approximately €551,116 in total.
Investors approved the repurchasing scheme at an annual general meeting on April 20.
