Imperial Brands Repurchases 228,058 Shares at Average 2,773p Under £1.45bn Buyback Programme

Transaction Details: Shares Bought Back on 25 June 2026

Imperial Brands confirmed on 26 June 2026 that it completed a single-day repurchase of 228,058 of its ordinary shares on 25 June 2026. All shares were purchased as on-exchange transactions through Barclays Capital Securities Limited, in accordance with the rules of the London Stock Exchange. The company intends to cancel all shares acquired in this Tranche, meaning they will not be held in treasury or reissued.

The price range across the day's purchases ran from a low of GBp 2,737.00 per share to a high of GBp 2,786.00, with the Volume-weighted average settling at GBp 2,773.7461. Detailed information on individual purchases within the session has been made available by the company in accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, the Market Abuse Regulation, and is accessible via the London Stock Exchange's RNS PDF service.

The £1.45 Billion Buyback Programme: Origins and Structure

The overarching share repurchase programme, under which this latest tranche was conducted, was first announced by Imperial Brands on 7 October 2025, with a total authorised value of £1.45 billion. Such programmes are a common mechanism by which large-cap companies return surplus capital to shareholders, and Imperial Brands has been executing Buybacks as a regular feature of its capital allocation strategy in recent years. The programme operates within the regulatory framework governing market purchases of own shares and is designed to reduce the total share count over time, which can, in isolation, support Earnings-per-share/">Earnings Per Share metrics.

The announcement does not specify how much of the £1.45 billion programme has been deployed to date in aggregate, nor does it indicate a projected completion date for the overall programme. Investors seeking to calculate remaining buyback capacity relative to total programme size will need to aggregate data from the series of individual transaction announcements published by the company throughout the programme's life.

Post-Cancellation Share Count and Its Significance for Shareholders

Following the settlement and cancellation of the 228,058 shares acquired on 25 June 2026, Imperial Brands states that the total number of ordinary shares in issue will be 770,242,594, excluding treasury shares. This figure is material for a number of regulatory and practical reasons. Under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules (DTRs), shareholders and others with notification obligations are required to use the total shares in issue as the denominator when calculating whether their holding, or a change to their holding, crosses a notifiable threshold.

The company has explicitly confirmed that the figure of 770,242,594 should be used as this denominator. Any investor or institution whose interest in Imperial Brands is close to a DTR notification threshold — typically 3%, 5%, or subsequent whole percentage increments — should review their position in light of this updated share count. As the total share count falls through cancellations, the percentage represented by any fixed number of shares held will naturally increase, potentially triggering disclosure obligations even where no new shares have been acquired.

Barclays Capital Securities: Role as Sole Broker in This Tranche

Barclays Capital Securities Limited acted as the sole broker for the execution of this repurchase tranche. The announcement states that all shares were purchased from Barclays as on-exchange transactions, meaning the trades were conducted through the lit order book of the London Stock Exchange rather than via any off-market or Dark Pool mechanism. This is consistent with standard practice under the safe harbour provisions of the Market Abuse Regulation, which requires on-exchange execution to benefit from regulatory protections afforded to share buyback programmes.

The involvement of a major Investment bank such as Barclays as the executing broker is a routine feature of FTSE 100 buyback programmes, providing both execution capacity across market sessions and an arm's-length mechanism that supports regulatory compliance. The appointment of a single broker for daily tranches also creates a clear audit trail for regulators, as required under Article 5 of the Market Abuse Regulation.

Market Abuse Regulation Compliance and Disclosure Obligations

Imperial Brands has confirmed that the transaction was conducted in accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, commonly referred to as the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). Although the United Kingdom adopted its own version of MAR following its departure from the European Union — UK MAR — the substantive obligations for companies conducting share buybacks remain substantively aligned, and the citation of the EU regulation number in the announcement reflects standard RNS drafting conventions used across the London market.

The company has attached detailed trade-by-trade information to the announcement, as required by the regulation, enabling Market Participants and regulators to verify that each purchase was made within the prescribed price and volume parameters. This level of granularity in disclosure is a deliberate feature of the buyback safe harbour regime, providing transparency that distinguishes legitimate capital management activity from potential market manipulation.

Capital Allocation Context: Why Imperial Brands Is Buying Back Shares

Share repurchase programmes of the scale announced by Imperial Brands — £1.45 billion — represent a significant commitment of corporate capital and signal management's confidence in the company's cash generation capacity. For a Business operating in the tobacco and next-generation products sector, strong and predictable free Cash Flow has historically underpinned both generous Dividend policies and the ability to conduct substantial buybacks. Imperial Brands has communicated a balanced capital allocation approach to the market over recent years, combining investment in its Brand portfolio and next-generation products (NGP) with returns to shareholders.

The announcement itself does not provide updated commentary on the strategic rationale for the programme, nor does it offer guidance on future capital returns beyond the existing buyback. Investors may be watching for any interim management statement or results announcement that provides broader context on how management views the balance between reinvestment in the business and Shareholder returns as the programme progresses.

Earnings Per Share Implications of Ongoing Share Cancellations

Each tranche of shares cancelled under the buyback programme reduces the denominator used in the calculation of earnings per share (EPS). As the total number of shares in issue falls, a given level of net profit is distributed across a smaller share count, mechanically increasing reported EPS. This is one of the primary financial engineering benefits commonly cited by companies and analysts when evaluating buyback programmes, alongside the signal of management confidence in the share's Intrinsic Value.

However, it is important to note that the announcement does not contain any earnings guidance or updated profit forecasts, and the EPS impact of any single tranche — such as today's 228,058 shares — is marginal when considered against a total share count of over 770 million. The cumulative effect of sustained buybacks over the life of the full £1.45 billion programme is likely to be more meaningful, and investors and analysts modelling forward EPS will typically incorporate programme assumptions into their consensus forecasts over the relevant period.

Price Range of the 25 June 2026 Purchases Relative to Recent Trading

The intraday price range recorded during the 25 June 2026 buyback session ran from GBp 2,737.00 at the lowest point to GBp 2,786.00 at the highest, with the average across the full tranche settling at GBp 2,773.7461. This range of approximately 49 pence across the session suggests a degree of normal intraday price variation during execution. The average price paid provides a useful reference point for investors assessing the cost basis of shares being retired under the programme.

The immediate share price impact of this specific transaction was not clear from available public information at the time of the announcement's publication. Investors tracking the relationship between buyback execution prices and prevailing market prices over the life of the programme may use the individual daily disclosures — each of which includes average, high, and low prices — to assess whether the company has been purchasing at levels broadly consistent with the prevailing market.

Regulatory Denominator Update: Implications for Institutional Investors

The confirmation that 770,242,594 shares will be in issue following cancellation is not merely an administrative disclosure; it carries direct regulatory significance for institutional shareholders, Index Funds, and any party holding a substantial interest in Imperial Brands. Under the DTRs, the obligation to notify the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the company of a change in voting rights arises when an investor's proportionate interest crosses certain thresholds, and that proportion is calculated using the most recently published total share count as the denominator.

As Imperial Brands progressively cancels shares through the buyback programme, the effective percentage held by any investor with a static position will gradually increase. For large institutional holders whose percentage interests are close to a threshold, this creep effect may eventually trigger a notification obligation even in the absence of any new share purchases. Imperial Brands' regular publication of updated share counts with each buyback tranche announcement ensures that institutional shareholders have the information necessary to monitor their own compliance positions in real time.

Programme Progress: What Investors Will Be Monitoring Going Forward

With the buyback programme originally announced on 7 October 2025 carrying a total authorised value of £1.45 billion, investors and analysts will be monitoring the cadence and volume of daily repurchase announcements to assess how much of the programme has been deployed and what remains available. The announcement does not disclose the aggregate value of shares repurchased to date under the programme, nor does it provide any indication of when the programme might be completed or whether its terms might be revised. The company did not disclose this figure in the announcement.

Investors may also be watching for any corporate events — such as half-year or full-year results, a Capital Markets day, or any strategic update — that could prompt management to comment on the continuation, acceleration, extension, or conclusion of the buyback programme. In the meantime, the daily RNS disclosures provide the most granular publicly available data on the programme's execution pace. Those tracking Imperial Brands closely will note that each individual tranche announcement, such as this one for 25 June 2026, collectively builds a picture of the company's ongoing commitment to returning capital to shareholders through this mechanism.