Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications company, and Philips Electronics, the US lighting manufacturer, have both announced plans for share buybacks. Nokia said it planned to spend ?5 billion ($6.5 billion) on share repurchases from April 7 onwards. It also said it planned to cancel 176 million of the 230 million shares it had acquired before the annual shareholders' meeting on April 7.
The company has just reported fourth quarter 2004 net sales of ?9.1 billion, up 3% from the same period in 2003.
Meanwhile, Philips Electronics has also unveiled a share buyback programme. The company plans to repurchase up to ?750 million of shares at some point during the next six months, using ?500 million of the proceeds to reduce capital and ?250 million to hedge share and option plans.