Nokia Corporation ("Nokia" or the "Company") has now completed the second phase of the share buyback program announced in December 2022. Between 2 January 2023 and 10 November 2023, Nokia repurchased 78,301,011 of its own shares (FI0009000681) at an average price per share of approximately EUR 3.83.
On 3 February 2022, Nokia announced that its Board of Directors is initiating a share buyback program under the authorization granted by Nokia’s Annual General Meeting on 8 April 2021 to return up to EUR 600 million of cash to its shareholders in tranches over a period of two years. The purpose of the repurchases was to optimize Nokia's capital structure through the reduction of capital.
The first phase of the share buyback program started on 14 February 2022 and it was completed on 11 November 2022 with a maximum aggregate purchase price of EUR 300 million. As announced on 11 November 2022, under the first phase of the share buyback program, Nokia repurchased 63,963,583 of its own shares, which were cancelled on 8 December 2022 as announced by Nokia on that date.
The second phase of the share buyback program started on 2 January 2023 under the authorization granted by Nokia’s Annual General Meeting on 5 April 2022 with a maximum aggregate purchase price of EUR 300 million. This second phase and the whole share buyback program have now been completed. The Board of Directors of the Company will separately resolve on the cancellation of the shares repurchased under the second phase of the program.
The repurchases under the second phase of the share buyback program reduced the Company’s unrestricted equity by EUR 300 million. Nokia Corporation now holds a total of 162,962,734 treasury shares.
The repurchases were executed otherwise than in proportion to the existing shareholdings of Nokia's shareholders (directed repurchases) through public trading on the regulated market of Nasdaq Helsinki and selected multilateral trading facilities.