Adidas announces plan to return $1.92bn to shareholders

Adidas has announced plans to return as much as $1.92bn to shareholders over the next three years as it seeks to address concerns over its underperforming share price.

The sportswear giant said the shareholder return programme would be financed mainly from the group’s free cash flow, adding share buybacks would start in the fourth quarter and be completed by December 31, 2017.

It said the buybacks were in addition to the company’s policy of paying out to shareholders 20-40 per cent of its net income as a dividend.

“We believe that our shares are currently significantly undervalued and this provides an excellent opportunity to optimise the company's cost of capital, deploy cash and create further value for our shareholders", the company said.