Purchases of securities
On February 3, 2022, share buybacks of $8.5 billion for the first half of 2022 were announced, comprising two programmes which were completed in May 2022 and July 2022. These included the remaining $5.5 billion of the Permian divestment proceeds that had been allocated for share buybacks. On July 28, 2022, and October 27, 2022, the Company announced buybacks of $6 billion and $4 billion which were completed in October 2022 and January 2023 respectively, leading to a total of $18.4 billion across 2022. The buybacks were conducted on both London market exchanges and Amsterdam exchanges.
Between January 1, 2022, and January 28, 2022, 32 million B shares were purchased and cancelled. Over the remainder of 2022, 650 million ordinary shares were purchased and cancelled. Overall, a total nominal share value of €48 million ($57 million), 9.8% of the Company’s total issued share capital at December 31, 2022, was purchased and cancelled during 2022 for a total cost of $18.4 billion, including expenses, at an average price of $26.99 per share.
The buybacks completed in the first half of 2022 were in accordance with the authorities granted by shareholders at the 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM). The buybacks completed in the second half of 2022 were in accordance with the authorities granted by shareholders at the 2022 AGM. At the 2022 AGM, authority was granted for the Company to repurchase up to a maximum of 10% of its issued ordinary shares, excluding treasury shares (758 million ordinary shares) both on and off market, allowing purchases on Amsterdam as well as London exchanges. As at December 31, 2022, 416 million ordinary shares could still be repurchased under the current AGM authorities. The purpose of the share repurchases in 2022 was to reduce the issued share capital of the Company.
New resolutions will be proposed at the 2023 AGM to renew the authority for the Company to purchase its own share capital, up to specified limits, for a further year. These proposals will be described in more detail in the 2023 Notice of Annual General Meeting.
Shares are also purchased by the employee share ownership trusts and trust-like entities (see Note 27 to the "Consolidated Financial Statements") to meet delivery commitments under employee share plans. All share purchases are made in open-market transactions.
The table on the next page provides information on purchases of shares in 2022 and January 2023 by the Company and affiliated purchasers. Purchases in euros and sterling are converted into dollars using the exchange rate on each transaction date.
|
Euro Shares |
GBP Shares |
ADSs [B] |
|||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Purchase period |
Number purchased for employee share plans |
Number purchased for cancellation [C] |
Weighted average price ($) [D] |
Number purchased for employee share plans |
Number purchased for cancellation [C] |
Weighted average price ($) [D] |
Number purchased for employee share plans |
Weighted average price ($) [D] |
||||||||||
January [E] |
– |
– |
– |
– |
31,678,192 |
24.43 |
1,106,045 |
46.31 |
||||||||||
February |
– |
– |
– |
– |
46,523,793 |
26.92 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
March |
– |
– |
– |
– |
56,830,503 |
26.32 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
April |
– |
– |
– |
– |
41,502,892 |
27.88 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
May |
– |
– |
– |
– |
74,210,419 |
29.00 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
June |
– |
– |
– |
– |
80,226,377 |
27.43 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
July |
– |
2,100,000 |
26.18 |
– |
11,359,217 |
26.07 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
August |
– |
37,458,590 |
26.56 |
– |
38,547,931 |
26.55 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
September |
– |
46,030,334 |
25.59 |
– |
62,467,606 |
25.70 |
– |
– |
||||||||||
October |
– |
10,046,901 |
26.25 |
– |
36,420,460 |
26.12 |
|
|
||||||||||
November |
– |
27,532,944 |
27.91 |
– |
21,324,945 |
27.91 |
|
|
||||||||||
December |
13,784,280 |
36,324,940 |
28.42 |
911,200 |
21,384,292 |
28.29 |
2,398,670 |
55.63 |
||||||||||
Total 2022 |
13,784,280 |
159,493,709 |
27.03 |
911,200 |
522,476,627 |
26.29 |
3,504,715 |
52.69 |
||||||||||
January |
– |
3,902,011 |
28.34 |
– |
24,834,916 |
28.82 |
808,490 |
55.87 |
||||||||||
Total 2023 |
– |
3,902,011 |
28.34 |
– |
24,834,916 |
28.82 |
808,490 |
55.87 |
||||||||||
|
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