H&M to buy back B-shares for one billion SEK

Swedish fashion company H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB is buying back its B-shares via a share buyback programme, making use of authorisation that was granted in its 2024 Annual General Meeting, the company said in its financial update and explained in a separate press release. H&M is buying back SEK one billion (98.3 million dollars) worth of B-shares.

The authorisation to buy back B-shares is one of the instruments that the board can use if "an excess of liquidity" is identified, the release read. The share buyback programme is to be executed with the approval of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 (the so-called Safe Harbour Regulation), and will be managed by an independent investment firm or credit institution.

The purpose is to distribute the surplus liquidity to adjust H&M's capital structure by reducing capital. Subsequently, the board of directors intends to cancel the repurchased shares at the 2025 Annual General Meeting. H&M further explained that the reduction of share capital is intended to be accompanied by a corresponding bonus issue. The level of share capital is to be restored in this way.

The total number of shares in H&M is 1.6 billion shares, of which 1.4 billion are B-shares. H&M does not yet have any of its own shares. The share buyback programme starts on September 26 and ends no later than November 26 this year. H&M is allowed to spend a maximum of one billion Swedish kronor on B-shares. According to the Swedish Companies Act, the fashion company is not allowed to buy more shares than would bring H&M's own shareholding to 10 percent of the shares in H&M.