Monex updates on acquisition of own shares

Online trading services provider Monex Group, Inc. (TYO:8698) has earlier today published an update on its efforts to acquire its own shares. The broker says that it has acquired its shares from the market and has also completed the acquisition agreed by the board of directors on August 21, 2018.

During the period from August 22 to August 24, 2018, the broker acquired 3,726,900 common shares for the sum of JPY 1,999,950,800.

This is in line with the target set last week, when the company announced it would acquire its shares in line with “Revision of Shareholder Distribution Policy” made public on April 26, 2018.

Monex aims to provide returns to its shareholders based on the business performance, while securing investment capacity for growth, and targets at a 75% total return ratio on a multi-year basis. The company has decided to acquire its own shares in accordance with the policy that the capital distribution is to be made by dividend payments and/or share buybacks in a timely manner determined at management’s discretion.

The brokerage said last week that the shares to be acquired are common stock of Monex Group, and the total number of the shares to be acquired is 5 million, which account for 1.86% of the total number of shares outstanding (excluding treasury shares). The aggregate amount of the acquisition cost is up to JPY 2 billion, with the period of acquisition being from August 22, 2018 to August 31, 2018, Monex said back then.

The “Revision of Shareholder Distribution Policy” announced in April this year, was implemented as troubled cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Monex Group. On April 16, 2018, Monex confirmed the completion of the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Coincheck, which was hit by a virtual currency theft in January 2018. The deal, which covers 1,775,267 shares in Coincheck, is valued at JPY 3.6 billion.