The prize for the most hubristic share buyback of recent years goes to Burberry. Only 12 months ago the fashion group was boasting about how it had just completed a £400m buyback, its second of that size in two years. Now, after a stunning collapse in profits, the company can’t even afford to give its shareholders a dividend and the (inevitably) new chief executive is talking about the need to “course correct” and stabilise the business “with urgency”. That 2023 buyback saw stock bought around the £20 level. Price now: 868p. What a waste of shareholders’ funds.
The better news is that 868p was a 19% gain on the day because the new course, described on Thursday by Joshua Schulman, the new man from Coach, read as realistic after predecessor Jonathan Akeroyd’s failed attempt to push the brand relentlessly upmarket. Akeroyd was searching for fatter profit margins but delivered profit warnings.
