04:41 PM EDT, 03/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Altria ( MO ) said late Tuesday it is launching accelerated share repurchase deals under separate agreements with Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) to buy back $2.4 billion of its common shares.

Altria ( MO ) said that on Tuesday it received an initial delivery of about 85% of the shares to be repurchased. The rest are expected to be delivered no later than the end of Q2, the company said.

The accelerated share repurchase deals are part of Altria's ( MO ) expanded $3.4 billion share buyback plan, which is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, the company said.

Altria ( MO ) also said it closed the sale of 35 million shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev ( BUD ) via a global secondary offering at a price of $61.50 per American depositary share.

Also, Anheuser-Busch repurchased $200 million of shares directly from Altria ( MO ), according to the statement.

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