On Oct. 17, Swiss multinational food and beverage conglomerate Nestle (OTC: NSRGY) announced that it will launch a buyback plan that could total as much as 20 billion Swiss francs ($20.2 billion at today's exchange rate) by 2022. It's another sign that CEO Mark Schneider is determined to boost the company's value to shareholders. Since Schneider took over three years ago, Nestle has purchased interests in several companies and cut jobs as part of an effort to improve growth and corporate profit margins.
With the $10 billion in cash from the sale of its Skin Health division in October, Nestle will start the buyback plan in January and may also issue special dividends over the next three years.
Nestle says it is the world's largest food and beverage company, with 308,000 employees and 413 factories in 83 countries. It had sales of 91.4 billion Swiss francs in 2018, a 2% year-over-year increase. It sells 2,000 brands and is perhaps best-known for brands including Gerber baby food, Perrier bottled water, KitKat candy bars, Nestle Toll House chocolate chips, and frozen-food brands Hot Pockets, Stouffer's, DiGiorno, and Lean Cuisine.