Munich Re to buy back up to €1.0bn in shares

German reinsurance giant Munich Re said Thursday it plans to buy back up to 1.0 billion euros ($1.4 billion) worth of shares by 2015. "In the period commencing after the 2014 annual general meeting and extending up to the 2015 annual general meeting, Munich Re intends to buy back up to 13 million shares for a maximum purchase price of 1.0 billion euros," the group said in a statement. "On the basis of the current share price this would amount to around 3.7 percent of the share capital," the statement said. On Wednesday, Munich Re shares had closed at a price of 150.50 euros on the Frankfurt stock exchange. A share buyback is an operation by which a company can increase its share price because it reduces the number of shares outstanding.