Ayala Corp., the listed investment holding firm of the Ayala Group, said Thursday that its board of directors has approved an expansion of its existing share buyback program to include the purchase of shares in its publicly listed subsidiaries.
The move was recommended by the company’s finance committee, Ayala said in a disclosure.
Ayala first launched the current share buyback program in 2019 with a P10-billion budget, aiming to support its stock price, which it believed was being undervalued by the market. In 2021, the board doubled the budget to P20 billion.
This is not Ayala’s first experience with stock repurchases. In 2007, it allocated P2.5 billion for a buyback program. By 2010, it had added another P2.5 billion and eventually raised the total to P10 billion by October of that year.
Among its subsidiaries, property giant Ayala Land Inc. has a separate P26-billion buyback program, of which P20 billion has already been used.
Other publicly listed companies under the Ayala Group include renewable energy firm ACEN, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), and Globe Telecom.
Listed firms often repurchase their own shares to boost shareholder value, signal confidence in the company’s prospects, improve financial ratios, and support stock prices during market volatility.
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