Celltrion will carry out stock buybacks this year as it did last year.
Celltrion announced on the 14th that it decided to retire 1,101,379 shares. The scheduled date for the stock retirement is the 25th of this month.
The shares being retired this time are all those acquired this year. This represents about 11% of the stock held by Celltrion and corresponds to 0.5% of the total issued shares. In monetary terms, it amounts to approximately 203.3 billion won based on the closing price on the 13th.
On Dec. 4 last year, Celltrion decided to retire 3,011,910 shares, which was 25% of its total shareholding at the time, following a board decision. The scale of the shares retired in January of this year reached 55.3 billion won.
Celltrion's total number of issued shares will decrease from 214,108,119 to 213,006,740 due to this stock retirement.
Celltrion will also retire all the shares it will buy back this year. Celltrion acquired a total of 436 billion won in treasury stock last year, and in February, it decided to make an additional treasury stock purchase of about 100 billion won.
Celltrion is pushing for the sale of treasury stock by reflecting shareholder opinions. As the total number of issued shares decreases due to the retirement, the value of the shares held by shareholders naturally rises.
In addition, through a board meeting last December, Celltrion resolved to distribute its largest-ever cash-stock dividends and will pay them following the approval at the regular shareholders' meeting on the 25th. The cash dividends will total approximately 153.8 billion won at 750 won per common share, and 10.25 million shares will be distributed as stock dividends at 0.05 shares per common share.
A Celltrion official noted, "Following last year's record revenue of approximately 3.5 trillion won since its establishment, this year we aim to achieve 5 trillion won in revenue and accelerate growth. We will expand our shareholder return policy in line with the rapid growth of the corporation and continue to grow alongside our shareholders."