Unilever has launched a €1.5bn (£1.28bn) share buy-back programme as it looks to reduce the firm's capital.

In the first tranche of the programme, up to €850m (£728m) of ordinary shares will be bought back between 17 May and 30 August 2024.

Unilever said that the first tranche is aimed at reducing the capital of the firm.

The board agreed on 1 May 2024 that the maximum number of shares that will be bought back by the firm will be 250,200,000.

The programme was announced in the British consumer goods firm’s full-year results in February, which it labelled as “disappointing”.

Although sales of Unilever products, including Dove, Hellman’s and Persil, had increased by 7% in the last full financial year, the firm saw its net profit fall by 3%.

In the group’s full-year results in February 2024, chief executive officer at Unilever, Hein Schumacher, said: "In October, we set out a growth action plan focused on three priorities: delivering higher-quality growth, stepping up productivity and simplicity, and adopting a strong performance focus.

"The new leadership team has embedded the action plan at pace. We have increased investment behind our 30 power brands, accelerated portfolio transformation, and are driving a sharper performance focus with clear and stretching targets across the whole organisation.

"We are at the early stages of this work and there is much to do but we are moving with speed and urgency to transform Unilever into a consistently higher performing business."

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