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| The owners of Phelps Dodge copper mining company are under pressure to return money to investors |
At a time when hedge funds are putting increasing pressure on companies to accelerate share buybacks, and private equity firms are using cheap debt to go after bigger corporate buyout targets than ever before, it’s tempting to conclude that companies are being forced to increase leverage in order to return cash to shareholders before someone else decides to do it for them. However, while leveraged share buybacks could become a lot more common in 12 months’ time, commentators say there’s little evidence to suggest that the technique is taking off yet.
Amgen
Although the number of companies buying back shares using cash on the balance sheet is increasing, analysts say, there have only been a few cases where...
