Tiffany & Co.announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a new stock repurchase program. This new program, effective immediately, authorizes the Company to repurchase up to $400 million of its Common Stock through open market or private transactions. At the current market price, this would represent repurchases of approximately 9% of the 144,548,000 shares of Common Stock that were outstanding at January 31, 2005. The new program expires on March 30, 2007. Repurchases under this program in excess of $159 million will be subject to lender approval under the Company's primary credit facility.
In November 2003, the Board had increased and extended a then-existing repurchase program, thereby authorizing the total repurchase of up to $116.5 million of the Company's Common Stock from that date through November 2006. At March 16, 2005, there remained approximately $21 million authorized for repurchase under that program, which has been terminated and replaced with the new program announced today.
Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer, said, “This significant action reflects Tiffany's financial strength and the Board's unequivocal confidence in our favorable long-term outlook. We believe that returning capital to shareholders through periodic stock repurchases is a prudent use of our strong cash flow and is consistent with our objective to generate additional value for our shareholders.”
