Italy’s Intesa halves share buyback programme to 1.7 billion euro for 2022

(Reuters) – Italy’s biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo on Friday halved its share buyback programme for this year to 1.7 billion euros ($1.79 billion), deferring the decision on the repurchase of the remaining half to next year.

Intesa had announced a 3.4 billion euro share buyback programme in February this year, as it expects to return more than 22 billion euros to investors by 2025.

Intesa said the trimmed buyback programme will be launched in early July and expected to complete it by end-October.

The decision on the remaining amount will be taken next year after the company’s 2022 results are approved, Intesa added.

($1 = 0.9481 euros)

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru, editing by Deepa Babington)