Entrepreneur Clive Cowdery’s consolidation vehicle Resolution has pledged to return £500m to shareholders over the next 12 months. Half of the money will be returned through a share buyback today, making it the biggest repurchase of its kind in the UK this year, while the remainder will be returned in the first half of 2012.

Although gaining in popularity with companies, opinion is divided over whether returning cash to shareholders benefits them. Buybacks involve a company buying and cancelling its stock thereby reducing the number of shares overall and boosting the size of the stake held by remaining shareholders.