Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. announced on Monday night that it plans to repurchase a total of no more than 10 percent of its publically issued domestic and overseas shares.
The company's A shares declined 5.4 percent to stand at 62 yuan (8.90 U.S. dollars) per share as of closing on Monday. If calculated according to the 10 percent repurchase limit, there will be funds worth approximately 110 billion yuan (about 15.81 billion U.S. dollars) injected into the market.
The repurchase proposal needed further deliberation from shareholders, and the prices, types and execution time of the repurchase remains unsettled, the company said.
Ping An's net profit rose 19.7 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, to 79.4 billion yuan, according to its Q3 report released Monday.
On Oct. 26, China's top legislature adopted revisions to the Company Law, which relaxed restrictions on public companies making stock buybacks.
Companies were previously banned from buying back their publicly traded shares except under four circumstances, such as when granting employees equity incentives.
Further loosening the restrictions, the revised law allows companies to buy back shares if they use them to issue convertible bonds or when the companies act to defend their corporate values and shareholders' interests.
