Piper Jaffray Will Buy Back Up to $100M of Shares

Piper Jaffray Companies

today announced that its board of directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $100 million of the company's outstanding common stock, effective Oct. 1, 2012. The principal purpose of the share repurchase program is to manage the firm's equity capital relative to its overall capital structure and to offset the dilutive effect of employee equity-based awards. Under the firm's three-year syndicated bank facility, share repurchases cannot exceed the amount of employee equity grants issued in a calendar year. The firm has substantially reached the covenant limit for 2012 under the bank facility, which expires in Dec. of 2013.