Fubon Financial plans buyback

Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) may spend as much as NT$7.2 billion (US$213 million) buying back as many as 150 million shares, it said in a statement. The 15 percent-owned affiliate of Citigroup Inc may pay as much as NT$48 a share in the buyback, accounting for as much as 2.7 percent of its outstanding shares, starting yesterday through Sept. 27. The company is legally permitted to buy back as much as 10 percent of its stock. "The plan is indeed to do a buyback of between NT$15 billion to NT$20 billion worth of shares, but we don't want to unnecessarily disrupt the market," Fubon spokesman Victor Kung (龔天行) said. "Maybe two to three programs like what we just announced would be sufficient to absorb the kind of size that we are considering."