Okasan Securities Group Inc. shares were indicated sharply higher Monday morning after the Japanese brokerage said it plans to spend at least 1.0 billion yen ($7.7 million) a year for buybacks to boost its share price.
Shares were indicated 20% higher at Y481, the upper end of the day’s trading range. No shares have changed hands since buy orders overwhelmed sell orders.
Okasan said after Friday’s market close that it will buy back Y1.0 billion of shares or more annually over the next five years until the price-to-book ratio–now around 0.56, according to Quick–exceeds 1.0.
The brokerage also said it aims to return at least 50% of its net profit to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, up from 29.5% for the fiscal year ended March 2022.
Okasan said it wants to improve its marketing capabilities, branding and online services and aims to achieve Y10 trillion in assets under management, compared with Y6.5 trillion at the end of December.