British companies are buying back their shares at a faster rate than even US groups, adopting a practice that has drawn criticism for allegedly detracting from investment and innovation and come under fire from lawmakers in both countries.
FTSE 100 companies made commitments to buy back at least £56.9bn of shares last year, according to investment platform AJ Bell, having pledged to repurchase more than £50bn of their stock in 2023 and 2022.
As a proportion of the market, 44 per cent of large companies in the UK reduced their share count by at least 1 per cent in 2024, pushing it ahead of the US, at 39 per cent, for the first time, according to calculations by fund firm Schroders using MSCI indices.
“We seem to be going all guns blazing at the share buyback,” said Adrian Gosden, a UK equity income manager at Jupiter Asset Management in London.
The trend marks a shift in thinking among UK companies, which have historically favoured…
