Brenntag SE (BNRGn.DE), a German chemicals distributor, is considering buying back at least 5% of its shares in order to boost shareholder returns, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
Brenntag may announce a share repurchase in the coming days with the release of its annual report, according to the report, adding that the exact size of the repurchase is likely to be in the high hundreds of millions of euros.
Brenntag declined to comment on the report.
The reported share buyback comes at a time when activist investors Engine Capital and PrimeStone are urging the company to break up and spin off its specialties unit as well as launch a share buyback program.
According to Bloomberg, the chemicals distributor, which recently dropped its bid for U.S.-based rival Univar Solutions (UNVR.N), has been informally debating the merits of a breakup, but executives are not yet studying the potential move seriously.
