Several hundred of China’s listed A-share companies have announced share buyback plans since the start of the year, with the majority planning to divert equity towards employee incentivisation schemes.
Since the start of the year a total of 385 listed companies in China have released share buyback plans, including 188 in the first third of July alone, according to figures from Chinese financial data provider Wind.
The goal of the overwhelming majority of companies is to provide equity incentive initiatives for employees. 268, or 70% of companies that have released buyback plans in 2022, have stated that the objective is the “implementation of equity incentive or employee shareholding plans.”
The scale of the buybacks is significant, with SF Express, BYD, Rongsheng Petrochemical, Haier, Smart Home, Vanke, Midea Group and Hengli Petrochemical all targeting share purchases of over 1 billion yuan.