Austria's EVN extends share buyback program

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian energy group EVN (EVNV.VI) doubled the size of its share buyback program on Friday and gave investors more time to tender their shares, saying it wanted to improve their value.

EVN said it would now buy back 2 million shares and extended the period until August 31, 2013 from December 31, 2012.

The company will now buy back up to 1.1 percent of its share capital.

"The share buyback is primarily designed to improve the supply and demand of the share of EVN AG on the Vienna Stock Exchange, as the company considers the exchange to be undervalued. Trading with own shares for profit-making purposes is excluded," EVN said in a statement.

EVN said it had bought back 931,530 of its own shares since starting the program on June 6. It did not give an average purchase price.

Shares in EVN were down 0.3 percent at 11.84 euros by 1454 GMT, outperforming a 0.8 percent weaker Austrian benchmark ATX .ATX.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by David Cowell)