HONDA SUSPENDS SHARE BUYBACKS

TOKYO  -- HONDA MOTOR said on Monday it has decided to suspend share buybacks temporarily to preserve funds after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.The automaker has said it is aiming for an annual shareholder return of about 30 percent, and its planned dividend of 54 yen per share and share buybacks done last year would bring the return to a little over 20 percent for the year ended in March.

The firm had been expected to carry out additional share repurchases to meet the target, but a company spokeswoman said it decided to put this on hold due to the need for cash to repair facilities damaged by the disaster.

Meanwhile, Honda said on Friday the personal information of more than 283,000 customers at Honda Canada has been breached. Honda Canada said the stolen data included names, addresses, vehicle identification numbers and in some cases financing account numbers.

It said the data was not the type that would typically be used for identity theft or fraud, such as birth dates, telephone numbers, email addresses, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, driver's license numbers, social insurance numbers, or dollar amounts of financing or payments.The company said the information was collected in 2009 as part of a series of customer mail programs encouraging Honda and Acura owners to register at the myHonda and myAcura Web sites. It added that the unauthorized access was recent.

SOURCE:AUTO NEWS