Nokia to buy back $1.7 worth of shares in restructuring plan

Finland-based Nokia, mainly known for its mobile handsets, today said it will repurchase shares worth up to €1.25 billion ($1.7 billion), in line with its €5 billion capital structuring optimisation programme.

The company will repurchase a maximum of 370 million shares. The repurchase is scheduled to commence on 24 July 2014 and will be valid till 17 December 2015, the company said in a statement from Helsinki.

"In line with earlier announced … capital structure optimisation programme, the Nokia board of directors has resolved to commence repurchases of shares under the authorisation given by the Nokia annual general meeting held on June 17, 2014," the statement said.

Shares may be repurchased by way of a directed repurchase from sellers in marketplaces, the rules of which allow firms to trade with their own shares. The purchase price will be based on current market price of Nokia shares in marketplace.

"The board resolved to repurchase a maximum of 370 million Nokia shares, however up to an equivalent of 1.25 billion euro," Nokia said.

In May this year, Nokia said it will embark on a capital structure optimisation programme that includes reducing debt by $2.8 billion by the second quarter of 2016, and repurchase shares worth $1.7 billion over the next two years to "improve the efficiency of Nokia's capital structure".

A month earlier, Nokia completed the sale of its handset business to the US-based software giant Microsoft for over $7.2 billion.