Moscow, Sept 16 - The board of Russian dairy and juice producer Wimm-Bill-Dann (WBD) will decide on a possible share buyback within two weeks amid a steep decline on the stock market, a company spokeswoman said on Monday.
Eleonora Chernetskaya told Reuters the board of directors had yet to decide whether the buyback will be carried out and on the amount of shares the company could seek to buy back.
Analysts at UniCredit Aton said WBD would most likely buy local shares, and the company's liquidity should remain largely unchanged as the domestic market is less active than that for its New-York listed American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) .
"The measure should support the stock in the near term, as it suggests management and the owners believe that the stock is undervalued," the analysts wrote in a note.
"However, we see the news as neutral for ADR holders as they would not be able to participate in the deal if local shares are to be acquired."
Shares in WBD fell 1.04 percent by 1410 GMT, outperforming the broader index <.MCX>, which was down 6.18 percent.
French group Danone has around 18 percent of WBD.