Adidas completes second share buyback program this year

Adidas has announced the completion of its second share buyback program this year, buying back 1,619,683 shares between 18 October and 25 November for a total amount of €450 million.

Taking into consideration the first share buyback conducted during the third quarter, Adidas has bought back 3,471,205 shares for a total amount of €1 billion in 2021. Including the dividend payment of €585 million in May, the company has returned nearly €1.6 billion to its shareholders this year.

Strong cash returns are an essential part of the company’s new strategy ‘Own the Game’. Driven by the significant top-line growth and strong bottom-line expansion, adidas will generate substantial cumulative free cash flow until 2025.

Harm Ohlmeyer, CFO of adidas, said: “‘Own the Game’ is a growth and investment strategy resulting in significant value creation. Dividends as well as share buybacks are key components of this. Against this background and given our positive outlook for 2022, we plan to continue our regular share buyback activities early next year. This will be complemented by returning the majority of the cash proceeds from the Reebok divestiture to our shareholders after closing of the transaction, which is expected to occur during the first quarter of 2022.”

As announced in October 2021, Adidas intends to cancel the majority of the shares repurchased as part of its buyback activities. As a result, a total of 8,316,186 treasury shares have been cancelled, reducing the company’s share count and stock capital from 200,416,186 to 192,100,000.