Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global chemical and specialty materials company, today announced that its board of directors has approved a new $1.5 billion share repurchase authorization. The new share repurchase authorization represents approximately 11 percent of the company’s shares outstanding.

The company deployed $200 million to repurchase shares in the first quarter of 2019 under the previous $1.5 billion share repurchase authorization put in place in 2017. As of March 31, 2019, approximately $500 million remained on the existing share repurchase authorization which, combined with this new $1.5 billion authorization, will support share repurchases over the next few years.

“Consistent share repurchases remain an important component of our balanced capital allocation strategy, and we will continue to opportunistically repurchase shares with remaining available free cash flow after dividends, organic investment and value-enhancing M&A. We will share additional detail on our capital allocation strategy as part of our first quarter 2019 earnings,” said Mark Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer.