LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The decision by Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, to launch an ongoing share buyback programme is not a defensive move to ward off a private equity bid, its boss said on Wednesday.
Morrisons, Britain’s fourth largest supermarket group, is being taken over by U.S. private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, while No. 2 player Sainsbury’s and Tesco have also seen their share price buoyed by takeover speculation.
“This isn’t defensive by any means, this is completely as far as we’re concerned part of business as usual,” CEO Ken Murphy told reporters after Tesco published better-than-expected first half results.
“This is part of a very clear policy and is the result of the very strong cash flow we’ve generated and we’ve spoken to shareholders for some time about the possibility of buybacks when our debt ratios and our cash flow permitted,” he said.
“We would never speculate on any form of activity in the market from a private equity perspective,” Murphy added.
Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Alistair Smout
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October 06, 2021 at 03:08PM
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