Nintendo plays winning Japanese buyback game

Kyoto Financial

26/02/2019 02:40

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Jeffrey Goldfarb
    HONG KONG, Feb 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The Super Mario
maker is repurchasing $300 mln of stock and cancelling hoarded
shares as owners like Bank of Kyoto adapt to new cross-holding
rules. Buybacks can be a poor use of cash, but with Japan Inc
holding $4 trln in reserve Nintendo is joining a worthwhile
movement. 
    Full view will be published shortly.
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/jgfarb
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    - Nintendo said on Feb. 22 it would buy back up to 1 million
shares, or about 0.83 percent of the total outstanding, worth
about 33 billion yen ($298 million). The video game company also
said it would cancel 10 million of its treasury shares on March
29.
    - Separately, NTT Docomo said on Feb. 22 that it would
cancel 447 million treasury shares, or about 11.8 percent of the
number in issuance.
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  GOLDFARB/  
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Nintendo statement - Treasury shares acquisition    https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2019/190222_2e.pdf
Nintendo statement - Treasury shares cancellation    https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2019/190222_3e.pdf
NTT Docomo statement    https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2019/0222_01.html
BREAKINGVIEWS - Nintendo brushes up gaming skills for 2019   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1ZV2AA
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 (Editing by Pete Sweeney and Katrina Hamlin)
 ((jeffrey.goldfarb@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
jeffrey.goldfarb.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))