BT 2008 Annual Report Download - page 83

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82 BT Group plc Annual Report & Form 20-F
Authority to purchase shares
The authority given at last year’s AGM of the company held on
19 July 2007 for BT to purchase in the market 827 million of its
shares, representing 10% of the issued share capital, expires on
18 October 2008. Shareholders will be asked to give a similar
authority at the AGM.
During the 2008 financial year, 540 million shares of 5 pence
each were purchased under this authority (6.4% of the share
capital) for a consideration of £1,498 million, at an average
price of £2.78 per share. For more details, see the table on
page 158. 250 million treasury shares have been cancelled and
53 million treasury shares have been transferred to meet BT’s
obligations under our employee share plans. A further 51 million
shares have been bought during the close period starting on
1 April 2008 so that on 14 May 2008 a total of 657 million
shares were retained as treasury shares. All the shares were
purchased in an on-market programme of buying back BT
shares, started in November 2003, as part of our shareholder
distribution strategy.
By order of the Board
Andrew Parker
Secretary
14 May 2008
Report of the Directors Corporate governance