Software solutions and outsourcing services group UCS has spent another R6 million on buying back its own shares.
To date, UCS Group has spent more than R26 million on the share buyback programme that began early in 2001.
The group has told shareholders it plans to delist about 8.9 million of the shares it has bought back in the past six months.
UCS Group repurchased 9.6 million of its shares for R5.97 million between 16 July last year and 8 January this year, paying between 55c and 68c a share for the acquisitions.
It was granted a general authority at its annual meeting in January 2001 to acquire its own shares. It began acquiring shares in March that year. The authority was renewed at the beginning of last year.
A further 27.64 million shares representing 10.14% of the original share capital are still outstanding in terms of the issued authority.
UCS experienced a tough 2002 financial year, resulting in a 3.5% decline in headline earnings per share. However, the balance sheet was sound, with cash of R63.1 million at 30 September and current assets worth four times current liabilities.
In December UCS acquired retail solutions company Virtual Systems Technology from Softline for R13 million cash.
The UCS share was untraded at 55c on the JSE this morning.
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