Building materials firm Grafton Group will expand its ongoing share buyback scheme by £50million.
The group, which also sells DIY products, will double the size of the purchase to £100million for up to around 15.7 million shares.
The international building materials distributor and DIY retailer, which owns the Woodie’s brand, will also extend the length of the scheme beyond its previous expiry date of 31 January 2024 to 31 May.
The international building materials distributor and DIY retailer owns the Woodie’s brand
Grafton shares jumped 2.7 per cent to 867.6p in early trading, taking one-year gains to 11.1 per cent.
Grafton initially announced the share buyback in August, despite a drop in a first-half profits on the back of more ‘challenging’ trading conditions
The first-half result came as a disappointment after a solid final six months of the previous year, which saw Grafton bounce back from sluggish Covid-era trade.
Grafton suffered broker downgrades last months as analysts weighed the impact of a slowing housebuilding market.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said that while Grafton ‘remains a quality business, with an excellent portfolio of assets, rock-solid balance sheet, and optionality around capital deployment’, it slashed the group’s target share price price from 1,050p to 970p
In September, Grafton Group faced a shareholder revolt after its record on climate and gender diversity were among the reasons 21 per cent of investors voted against re-electing its non-executive chairman.
The Irish DIY retail giant launched a consultation after more than a fifth of investors chose not to support the resolution to re-elect Michael Roney at the firm’s annual general meeting in May.
The FTSE 250 firm said ‘a mix of factors’ were behind the shareholder rebellion.
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