Merck & Co Inc. (MRK) announced that it has entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement or ASR with Goldman, Sachs & Co. to repurchase $5 billion of Merck's common stock.
Merck said proceeds from the company's recently concluded debt offering were used to execute the ASR, which is part of Merck's previously announced $15 billion share repurchase program.
Under the terms of the ASR, Merck said it has agreed to repurchase $5 billion of its common stock from Goldman, Sachs & Co., in total, with an initial delivery of about 99.5 million shares based on current market prices.
The final number of shares to be repurchased will be based on Merck's volume-weighted average stock price during the term of the transaction, which is expected to be completed no later than November 25, 2013, the company stated.
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