Willis Group Holdings Limited said the brokerage plans to purchase approximately 1.25 million shares of its common stock from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods using an accelerated repurchase program for an initial price of approximately $50 million.
The London-headquartered firm said the action is part of Willis' previously announced stock repurchase program.
"We believe the best use of our capital is to continue to buy back our own stock," said Joe Plumeri, chairman and chief executive officer of Willis. "Our strong financial performance, cash flow and balance sheet allow us the financial flexibility to continue to return value to our shareholders."
Under the terms of the arrangement, the repurchased shares are subject to a price adjustment based on the volume-weighted average market price of Willis' common shares during the term of the program.
Willis shares on the New York Stock Exchange opened today's trading at $39.05.
The company expects the program to be completed in the first quarter of 2007. All of the shares repurchased under the agreement will be retired.
Including this transaction, the company would have $739 million of authorized share repurchases remaining under its existing buy back authorization.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.