MILAN, Jan 30 Reuters Italy39;s top insurer Assicurazioni Generali will launch a 500 million euro 540 million share buyback plan this year, it said on Tuesday, confirming its focus on returns to investors.

The group is on track to meet all the key financial targets of its strategic threeyear plan ending in 2024, it said in a statement.

Under the plan, Generali aims for average annual earnings per share EPS growth of 68 and to pay up to 5.6 billion euros in dividends.

Last November, CEO Philippe Donnet said that the company had 500 million euros left of the 3 billion euros earmarked for MA deals and that the sum could be returned to investors if not used for acquisitions.

Donnet faced down a shareholder rebellion in 2022 to win another term as CEO which expires next year.

Generali last year agreed to buy the Spanish unit of U.S. insurer Liberty Mutual for 2.3 billion euros, strengthening its property and casualty segment.

It also struck a deal, structured as an exchange of assets without a cash consideration, to acquire Connecticutbased asset manager Conning Holdings, fulfilling Donnet39;s ambition to expand into the asset management sector in the United States.

The company expects the acquisition of Liberty Seguros to contribute more than 250 million euros a year to its pretax profit by 2029, and annual synergies of between 70 million euros and 80 million euros within five years of the Conning deal.

According to analysts at Banca Akros, the EPS accretion from…