Daimler wraps first tranche of stock buyback

FRANKFURT, Dec 11 (Reuters) - German carmaker Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE) has bought back around 4.73 percent of its outstanding shares for 3.48 billion euros ($5.10 billion), wrapping up the first tranche of the repurchase programme, it said on Tuesday.

It reiterated that the buyback scheme will resume once its management and supervisory boards have approved the 2007 annual financial statement at the end of February 2008 and assuming that 2007 profitability is in line with expectations.

"In total, therefore, up to 10 percent of the outstanding shares will be bought back for up to 7.5 billion euros," it said. The rest of the shares are supposed to be bought by the end of August 2008. (Reporting by Michael Shields)