As might be expected, the departure of the chairman and the CEO has not affected the efforts of Deutsche Borse to return capital to shareholders. In the week beginning 6 June, the company will commence a second share buy-back programme with a planned volume of approximately Euros 370 million. In the course of 2005, the company has already repurchased shares valued at Euros 353.1 million between mid-April and mid-May and paid a dividend of Euros 74.1 million. Deutsche Brse announced the “Capital Management Programme” in March before CEO Werner Seifert was obliged to stand down by hostile shareholders. The company intends to distribute approximately Euro 1.5 billion to shareholders by May 2007, including some Euros 800 million in 2005.
The upcoming second share buy-back programme is based on the authorization by the AGM on 25 May 2005. The AGM authorized the company to repurchase up to 10 per cent of its share capital, or up to a maximum of 10,591,878 shares. The shares will be repurchased exclusively on the exchange.