The board of directors of Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) announced an adjustment to the company’s equity plans following its decision to distribute a special dividend of €0.26 per share in addition to its ordinary dividend of €0.11 per share for fiscal 2013.
Nokia equity plans adjustments
The Finnish company explained that its board of directors decided to neutralize the impact of the extraordinary shareholders distributions to the participants holding unvested equity, since dividends are not paid to unvested equity received under the Nokia equity plans.
The board of directors of Nokia amended the original grant amount of all unvested shares to the participants including senior executives and key employees. According to the company, the exercise prices of Nokia’s stock options will be adjusted by deducting the amount of the special dividend from the exercise price as mandated by the terms and conditions of its stock option plans.
According to the Finnish company, the number of additional performance and restricted shares is 713,736 following the amendments. Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) said under its equity plans, the current outstanding maximum number of shares and option rights represent 0.9% of the current issued shares of the company (excluding the shares owned by Nokia and its subsidiary companies).
Shares repurchase program
In addition, the board of directors of Nokia approved the repurchase of a maximum of 370 million of its shares worth around €1.25 billion as part of its previously announced €5 billion capital structure optimization program.
According to the company, the shares may be repurchased directly from sellers in the market places based on the current price of its stock. Nokia may also carry out the stock buyback by entering into derivative, share lending or other arrangements, in such case the repurchase price may be different from the market price—within the limits provided by its authorization, valid until December 17, 2015.
The Finnish company plans to start repurchasing its shares after the release of its second quarter financial results for fiscal 2014. Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) is scheduled to report its quarterly performance on July 24.
