Astellas Announces Acquisition of Own Shares and Cancellation of Treasury Stock

On February 6, 2023 Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D., "Astellas") reported that at the meeting of the Board of Directors held today, a resolution was adopted to acquire its own shares pursuant to the provision of its Articles of Incorporation in accordance with Article 459, paragraph 1 of the Companies Act (Press release, Astellas, FEB 6, 2023, View Source [SID1234626858]). The Company also announced that it decided to cancel its treasury stock pursuant to the provisions of Article 178 of the Companies Act. The details are as follows.

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Reasons for the acquisition of own shares
To improve capital efficiency and shareholder return.

Details of the acquisition of own shares
(1) Class of shares to be acquired:  Common stock of the Company
(2) Total number of shares to be acquired:  Up to 29 million shares
      (Ratio to the total number of shares outstanding [excluding treasury stock]: 1.59%)
(3) Total amount of acquisition cost:  Up to 50 billion yen
(4) Period of acquisition:  From February 7, 2023 to March 24 ,2023
(5) Method of acquisition:  Marked purchase on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Details of the cancellation of treasury stock
(1) Class of shares to be cancelled:  Common stock of the Company
(2) Number of shares to be cancelled:  All of the shares acquired as stated in 2 above
(3) Cancellation date:  March 29, 2023 (planned)
* The actual number of shares to be cancelled will be announced after
completing the acquisition of own shares stated in 2 above.
(Reference) Status of treasury stock as of December 31, 2022:

Total number of shares outstanding (excluding treasury stock): 1,822,806,495 shares
Total number of treasury stocks: 13,045,080 shares