Cigna To Buy Back $2 Bln Stock Through Accelerated Stock Repurchase Agreements

(RTTNews) - Health services company Cigna Corp. (CI) Tuesday said it will repurchase $2.0 billion common stock through accelerated stock repurchase or ASR agreements with each of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

The ASRs are part of Cigna's existing share repurchase program, which had remaining authority of $3.8 billion as of August 4.

Under the ASR Agreement terms, Cigna will receive an aggregate initial delivery of around 7.7 million shares of Cigna stock in exchange for a prepayment of $2.0 billion.

David Cordani, President and Chief Executive Officer, said the accelerated share repurchase is consistent with the company's commitment to return a significant amount of capital to shareholders.

When combined with previously completed share repurchase and a greatly increased dividend, the company would have returned more than $7 billion of capital to shareholders in calendar year 2021.