TCS board to consider share buyback proposal on January 12

TCS’ previous buyback offer of about Rs 16,000 crore had opened on Dec. 18, 2020, and closed on Jan. 1, 2021. Over 5.33 crore equity shares were bought back under the offer for Rs 3,000 apiece. In 2018, India’s largest IT services firm repurchased shares worth up to Rs 16,000 crore at Rs 2,100 apiece. A similar exercise was conducted in 2017 as well.

“…the Board of Directors will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company, at its meeting to be held on January 12, 2022,” according to exchange filing on Friday. The board is scheduled to meet on Jan. 12 to approve and take on record the financial results of the company for the third quarter and the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021. At the end of the September 2021 quarter, the Mumbai-based company had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 51,950 crore.

Smaller peers like Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. have also undertaken buyback programmes to return surplus cash on their books to shareholders. In September last year, Infosys had said it has bought back over 5.58 crore equity shares as part of its Rs 9,200-crore buyback offer. The process—conducted via open market through Indian stock exchanges—saw shares being bought back in the range of Rs 1,538.10 and Rs 1,750. Wipro had also completed a Rs 9,500 crore buyback in January last year.

On Friday, TCS shares rose 1.26% to Rs 3854.85 apiece on the BSE while the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.24% higher at 59,744.65 points.