Drinks giant Diageo (LON:DGE) reported a rise in both pre-tax profit and net sales on Thursday, alongside the announcement of a £2 billion share buyback programme.

The group said the decision would take them to the next level as the world’s biggest distiller, following an earlier share buyback of £1.5 billion in June.

“On 26 July 2018 the Board approved a new share buyback programme to return up to £2.0bn to shareholders during the year ending 30 June 2019,” the company confirmed in a statement.

For the 12 months to 30 June, pre-tax profit rose to £3.74 billion, with annual net sales of £12.2 billion and operating profit of £3.7b billion. Net sales was driven by 2.5 percent volume growth helping to offset the impact of a stronger pound, and was driven by double digit growth in both Asia Pacific and Latin America.

“Our financial performance expectations are unchanged and we expect to continue to invest in the business to deliver our mid-term guidance of consistent mid-single digit organic net sales growth and 175bps of organic operating margin expansion for the three years ending 30 June 2019,” said Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive.

Shares in Diageo (LON:DGE) are currently trading down 0.77 percent at 2,825.00 (0851GMT).