Statoil Seeks to Buy Back 75 mln Shares

The board of Norwegian energy firm Statoil will ask shareholders to authorize the buyback of 75 million shares, or about 2.4 percent of the firm's share capital, Statoil said in a general meeting notice on Tuesday.

"The repurchase of own shares benefits shareholders by the remaining shares representing an increased ownership interest in the company," the firm said. "The repurchase of own shares will also be an important means of continuously adjusting the company's capital structure in order to make it more expedient."

The condition for the buybacks and the subsequent annulment of the shares is that the state's 67 percent ownership in the firm is not changed.

Reporting by Balazs Koranyi