5. Shareholders’ equity and earnings per share

Share repurchase

On October 26, 2011, the Board of Directors announced that it had authorized a program to repurchase up to $300 million of Signet’s common shares (the “Repurchase Program”). The Repurchase Program will be funded through Signet’s existing cash reserves and liquidity sources. Repurchased shares may be used by Signet for general corporate purposes. Repurchases may be made from time to time in the open market, through block trades or otherwise. The timing, manner, price and amount of any repurchases will be determined by Signet in its discretion, and will be subject to economic and market conditions, stock prices, applicable legal requirements and other factors. The Repurchase Program may be suspended or discontinued at any time, or from time to time, without notice. The Repurchase Program became effective on January 16, 2012, and lasts 24 months. On July 17, 2012, Signet announced that its Board of Directors had authorized a $50 million increase in the existing Repurchase Program, bringing the total authorization to $350 million, of which $50.1 million remained available as of July 28, 2012 and set to expire in January 2014.

The Company repurchased 6,425,296 shares at an average price of $44.70 in the 26 weeks ended July 28, 2012 under the Repurchase Program, which are being held as treasury shares. The Company did not repurchase any shares held as treasury in the 26 weeks ended July 30, 2011.

Earnings per share


	13 weeks ended				26 weeks ended
	July 28, 2012		July 30, 2011		July 28, 2012		July 30, 2011
Net income ($million)		70.7		66.3		153.2		141.7

Basic weighted average number of shares in issue (million)		82.6		86.3		84.1		86.1
Dilutive effect of share options (million)		0.4		0.8		0.6		0.8

Diluted weighted average number of shares in issue (million)		83.0		87.1		84.7		86.9

Earnings per share – basic	$	0.86	$	0.77	$	1.82	$	1.64
Earnings per share – diluted	$	0.85	$	0.76	$	1.81	$	1.63

The basic weighted average number of shares excludes non-vested time-based restricted shares, shares held by the Employee Stock Ownership Trust and treasury shares. Such shares are not considered outstanding and do not qualify for dividends, except for time-based restricted shares for which dividends are earned and payable by the Company subject to full vesting. The effect of excluding these shares is to reduce the average number of shares in the 13 and 26 week periods ended July 28, 2012 by 4,579,232 and 3,108,956 shares, respectively (13 and 26 week periods ended July 30, 2011: 585,636 and 558,911 shares, respectively). The calculation of fully diluted earnings per share for the 13 and 26 week periods ended July 28, 2012 excludes options to purchase 287,487 and 223,811 shares, respectively (13 and 26 week periods ended July 30, 2011: 144,183 and 311,742 shares, respectively) on the basis that their effect on earnings per share was anti-dilutive.

Dividends

For the first quarter of Fiscal 2013, a cash dividend of $0.12 per share on Signet’s Common Shares was paid on May 29, 2012. Further, for the second quarter of Fiscal 2013, a cash dividend of $0.12 per share on Signet’s Common Shares was approved on June 19, 2012 for payment on August 28, 2012 to shareholders of record on July 27, 2012. As a result, $9.7 million has been recorded in accrued expenses and other current liabilities reflecting this dividend, which is not presented in the condensed consolidated statement of cash flows as it is a non-cash transaction as of July 28, 2012.