Blue Bird Corporation, the leading independent designer and manufacturer of school buses, announced that its Board of Directors authorized the company to repurchase up to $25 million in the aggregate of its outstanding common stock and/or series A convertible preferred stock during the next 12 months. The repurchase program permits repurchases in open market or private transactions, including accelerated share repurchase transactions, block trades, or pursuant to trading plans intended to comply with SEC Rule 10b5-1. The timing, manner, price, and amount of securities to be repurchased will be determined by management at their discretion. The repurchase program does not obligate Blue Bird to acquire any specific amount of securities and can be modified or terminated at any time without notice. Repurchases under this program are expected to be funded from one or a combination of existing cash balances, future free cash flow and indebtedness. Shares repurchased under the program are expected to be retired stock.

“Our prior $50 million stock repurchase program closed in March 2018 and was well received by our shareholders,” said Phil Horlock, President and CEO of Blue Bird. “We are excited to leverage again our strong free cash flow generation to return capital to our shareholders through this new stock repurchase program. This initiative signifies management's and our Board’s confidence in our long-term growth prospects and our commitment to continually enhancing shareholder value.”