KO Coca Cola Company

   By Tess Stynes 
 

Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST) said its offer to repurchase as much as $2 billion of its shares through a modified "Dutch auction" tender offer was oversubscribed.

The energy-drink maker said it expects to repurchase roughly 12.8 million shares at a purchase price of $156 each. Monster said roughly 13.6 million shares were tendered at $156 each, along with an additional 6.5 million shares through notice of guaranteed delivery at or below that price. Chief Executive Rodney Sacks and Vice Chairman Hilton Schlosberg tendered 1.85 million shares and 1.06 million shares, respectively.

The company has just over 200 million shares outstanding, according to FactSet.

The Corona, Calif., company's stock, up 24% in the past 12 months, rose 64 cents in recent premarket trading to $155.82.

The modified "Dutch auction" is part of the Corona, Calif., company's plans to return capital to shareholders this year. In February, Monster unveiled a new share-repurchase program of up to $1.75 billion, in addition to $250 million remaining at the time under a previous authorization. Monster had been sitting on a large pile of cash since last June, when Coca-Cola Co. (KO) paid $2.15 billion to acquire a 16.7% stake in the company.

Under the modified "Dutch auction," Monster had offered to repurchase shares for between $142 and $160 apiece. Shareholders had the option of tendering their shares with or without specifying a specific price. Monster had said that if the offer was fully subscribed, the $2 billion stock repurchase would comprise between 6.2% and 6.9% of its outstanding shares.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 09, 2016 09:39 ET (13:39 GMT)

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