PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) on Friday started to buy back its own shares on the open market to bolster its share price as global markets are battered by escalating fears over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company on Thursday said that it would buy back up to 230 million common shares until May 5 at NT$10.05 to NT$13.50 and would continue the program past May 5 if its share price falls below that range.
Acer shares fell 3.83 percent to close at NT$13.8 on Friday. They dropped 14.8 percent last week and have declined 22.69 percent since the beginning of the year.
Acer is the first company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange to launch a share buyback since the Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday urged listed firms to repurchase their own shares to ease pressure and stabilize equity prices.
The commission said it would consider imposing a ban on the short-selling of stocks if irrational heavy selling emerges.
Acer last week reported consolidated sales for last month fell 17.1 percent month-on-month and 22.4 percent year-on-year to NT$11.23 billion (US$371.73 million) — the lowest monthly figure since January 2005 — as PC shipments and demand slowed due to the pandemic.
Production along its supply chain, which has been affected by lockdowns in many cities in China due to the virus, is recovering and is expected to return to normal in about the middle of the second quarter, Acer said.
In the first two months of the year, combined revenue dropped 20.4 percent year-on-year to NT$24.78 billion, the company said.
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