PartnerRe Ltd’s board of directors has given the green light for the company to buy back up to five million of its own shares.

The buyback authorisation supersedes PartnerRe’s previous authorisation of September 2013.

Buying back shares for cancellation enables a company to reduce the total number of shares outstanding and so effectively increase the equity of shareholders, as well as increasing earnings per share.

Yesterday morning the company’s share price was around $111.80, putting the value of the total share buyback authorisation at almost $560 million.

PartnerRe will make the repurchases over time on occasions it considers opportune.