Share buyback and repurchases at Pets at Home and Chewy

Pets at Home Group issued a share buyback scheme worth £25 million ($31.68M/€29.46M) to reduce the company’s share capital and cope with lower-than-expected sales growth.

The program’s first phase started on 24 June 2024 and follows £100 million ($126.72M/€117.83M) in completed buybacks over the past 2 years.

The British pet retailer’s outlook for the financial year (FY) 2025 remains “unchanged” as it expects underlying profit before tax (PBT) to reach approximately £144 million ($183.7M/€169.3M).

From 31 March 2023 to 28 March 2024, Pets at Home Group hit £1.5 billion ($1.9B/€1.76B) in revenue in FY24, an annual increase of 5.2% from £1.4 billion ($1.78B/€‎1.64B) in 2023.

Repurchase of shares

On the other side of the pond, American online pet retailer Chewy has agreed to repurchase an aggregate of 17,550,000 shares of its Class A common stock, par value of $0.01 (€0.0093) per share, at a price per share of $28.49 (€26.49).

The shares are currently owned by BC Partners Advisors LP, Chewy’s largest shareholder.

“Chewy’s increasing profitability and free cash flow generation enables the Company to further optimize its capital allocation strategy through this transaction, which comes in addition to the recently announced $500 million (€465M) share repurchase program,” a company press release reads.

The repurchase was approved by a special committee of Chewy’s Board of Directors. According to the company, it is being executed separately from Chewy’s existing $500 million (€465M) share repurchase program authorized on 24 May 2024.

For the FY 2023 ending 28 January 2024, Chewy’s net sales jumped 10.2% year-over-year (YoY) to $11.1 billion (€10.2B).