(Reuters) – Chinese food delivery giant Meituan on Wednesday confirmed it had authorised a share buyback of up to $1 billion in value, a day after its chief executive expressed the board’s intention to do so.
Meituan CEO Wang Xing had said on Tuesday that the board had authorised a share buyback of up to $1 billion but it would depend on the company’s cash position due to plans to invest in new initiatives and explore overseas investments.
“The Board believes that the current financial resources of the company would enable it to implement the share repurchase while maintaining a solid financial position,” Meituan said in an exchange filing on Wednesday.
The share repurchase will start from Dec. 1.
Meituan, China’s largest food delivery provider ahead of Alibaba’s Ele.me, on Tuesday flagged expectations around fourth-quarter revenue growth for its core food delivery business to slow versus the preceding quarter.
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
