Share Buyback
For the further optimization of Daimler’s capital structure, the Board of Management of the company decided to carry out a new share buyback program. The Supervisory Board of Daimler AG has approved this decision. In exercise of the authorization granted by the Annual Meeting of April 9, 2008, the decision of the Board of Management allows for the buyback of 10% or approximately 96.4 million of the outstanding shares for a maximum amount of EUR6 billion.
Daimler’s capital structure is to be further optimized with the goal of reducing the use of equity capital, which is more expensive than debt capital. This will avoid investment decisions being limited by excessively high capital costs.
The share buyback program will be carried out on the stock exchange. The Board of Management decision limits the period of the share buyback until the Annual Meeting on April 8, 2009. The shares acquired will later be cancelled without any reduction in Daimler’s share capital. It will also be possible to use some of the shares to serve stock option plans.
In line with the decision by the Board of Management, the share buyback will be managed by a bank, which will make its decisions on the timing of individual share purchases independently and without any influence from Daimler AG.
The company started its first share buyback program at the end of August 2007. By March 28, 2008, 99.8 million shares had been bought back for EUR6.2 billion.
The table below shows the development of the share buy back program:
Period
No. of Shares Acquired
Average Price (EUR)
Purchased Volume (EUR)
Total
36,650,000
39.09
1,432,509,737.88
Oct 06-10, 2008
955,000
26.70
25,502,511.00
Oct 01-03, 2008
695,000
31.30
21,751,900.50
Sep 2008
7,690,000
39.43
303,205,164.18
Aug 2008
6,910,000
40.19
277,696,796.64
Jul  2008
13,850,000
38.14
528,276,884.47
Jun 2008
6,550,000
42.15
276,076,480.09
The figures on a day to day basis are provided here:
 
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