Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT) (the “Company” or “Clarivate”), a global leader in connecting people and organizations to intelligence they can trust, today announced that, given its reduced debt profile, the Company’s Board of Directors has approved the extension of its share repurchase authorization through December 31, 2024, and reduced the authorization from $1 billion to $500 million.
Jonathan Gear, Chief Executive Officer of Clarivate, said, “The changes to the share repurchase program reflect our Board and management team’s confidence in Clarivate’s strategy, execution and commitment to allocating our significant free cash flow towards the Company’s capital structure, investing for growth and returning capital to shareholders. Having made significant progress in reducing our leverage, we are now positioned to increase shareholder returns through the share repurchase program. We intend to execute against this $500 million authorization until the end of 2024, while continuing to strengthen our balance sheet and still achieving a leverage ratio of less than 4x net debt to EBITDA by the end of 2023.”
To enable the buybacks under the above Board authorization, the Company will be seeking shareholder approval at a general meeting in July to permit it to conduct open-market purchases of up to 100,000,000 of its ordinary shares from time to time as approved by the Board of Directors at a minimum purchase price of $1 per share and maximum purchase price of $35 per share to enable continued share repurchases in the open market at current market levels.
About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a leading global information services provider. We connect people and organizations to intelligence they can trust to transform their perspective, their work and our world. Our subscription and technology-based solutions are coupled with deep domain expertise and cover the areas of Academia & Government, Life Sciences & Healthcare and Intellectual Property. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.