Bristol Myers Enters Into $5 Bln ASR Agreements

(RTTNews) - Drug maker Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) said Wednesday it has entered into accelerated share repurchase or ASR transactions with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Barclays Bank PLC, Citibank, N.A. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., to repurchase $5 billion of its shares in aggregate, under ASR agreements.

Bristol Myers Squibb expects to fund the repurchases with cash on-hand.

The ASR transactions will be completed under a previously announced $15 billion board-authorized multi-year share repurchase program, under which the company will have approximately $10.2 billion of remaining share repurchase authorization after giving effect to the ASR transactions.

Around 85 percent of the shares to be repurchased under the ASR transactions will be received by Bristol-Myers Squibb on February 9. "The total number of shares ultimately repurchased under the ASR transactions will be determined upon final settlement and will be based on a discount to the volume-weighted average price of Bristol-Myers Squibb's common stock during the terms of the ASR transactions," the company said in a statement.

The pharma firm expects that the ASR transactions will be settled during the second and third quarters of 2022.