KARACHI: Lucky Cement Ltd said in a regulatory filing with the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday that it’ll purchase 23.8 million of its shares in a second buyback starting next Friday (June 2).

The buyback exercise, which will be carried out using the firm’s distributable profits, will continue until Nov 20. Afterwards, the cement maker will cancel the shares, which constitute about 7.6 per cent of the current paid-up capital of the company.

At the going rate of Rs477.86 apiece, the exercise will cost the cement maker roughly Rs11.4 billion.

The firm already completed its first buyback, which consisted of 10m shares, in March at a total cost of Rs4.35bn. The practice of listed firms buying back their shares is becoming increasingly popular in Pakistan. The total number of shares goes down once a company conducts a share buyback for cancellation.

As a result, its break-up value and profit per outstanding share go up. However, some analysts oppose the practice on the pretext that the exercise deprives the stock exchange of valuable shares.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2023