Wolters Kluwer today reports that it has repurchased 166,645 of its own ordinary shares in the period from January 11, 2018 up to and including January 17, 2018 for €7.1 million and at an average share price of €42.85.
These share repurchases are part of the three-year share buyback program (2016-2018) originally announced on February 24, 2016. This buyback program includes repurchases made to offset performance share issuance. In 2016, we completed €200 million in share buybacks under this program. In 2017, we completed €300 million of repurchases, including an additional €100 million to mitigate the EPS dilution related to two divestments completed in 2017 (Transport Services and certain UK assets). Following completion of the divestments of Corsearch and certain Swedish assets in January 2018, we now intend to execute up to €400 million in buybacks in 2018, as we deploy the proceeds of these two most recent divestments with the aim of mitigating their dilutive effect on earnings per share. The cumulative amounts repurchased under this three-year program is now as follows: