Athletic apparel retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. said June 7 that it agreed to repurchase 3.3 million shares of its common stock from private equity firm Advent International Corp. in a private transaction.
The shares will be bought back under the retailer's recently increased $600 million share repurchase program using cash on hand and available borrowings.
Lululemon said it has also been informed by Advent that it sold an additional 6.7 million shares of the retailer's common stock. Prior to these transactions, Advent held 20.1 million shares of Lululemon, representing a 14.8% stake.
"Today's partial sale is consistent with our planned monetization of our interest in Lululemon," David Mussafer, chairman and managing partner at Advent and lead director of Lululemon's board, said in a statement. "We remain actively involved with the company as investors and board members and look forward to its continued success."
Lululemon expects the share purchase to boost the company's fiscal 2018 EPS by approximately 3 cents. The Canadian retailer recently raised its full-year earnings forecast, projecting diluted EPS to be in the range of $3.10 to $3.18 from the guidance range of $3.00 to $3.08 it previously gave.
