Wendy's to spend $300M on accelerated stock repurchaseWendy's to spend $300M on accelerated stock repurchase

DUBLIN Ohio Wendy's International Inc. said Tuesday it planned to purchase up to $300 million of its common stock from a broker-dealer in an accelerated share repurchase transaction.

While the exact number of shares and the per-share price are yet to be determined, Wendy's said it expects to repurchase up to 9 million shares during its current first quarter ending next month.

Wendy's previously had announced that its board of directors had approved a share repurchase program of up to 35.4 million shares. As part of that authorization, the company repurchased 22.4 million shares for $803.4 million in a modified Dutch auction tender offer in late 2006.

Wendy's, which operates or franchises about 6,674 namesake restaurants, said the accelerated share repurchase allows the company "to utilize [its] strong balance sheet to return capital to shareholders in an efficient manner."