Shares of the country's largest information technology company - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - rose as much as 3.24 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 3,979.90 after the company informed exchanges that its board will consider share buyback proposal on January 12 when it will announce its December quarter earnings. The company did not elaborate about the size of share buyback and at what price it will buy its shares back from investors.
"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," a regulatory filing said.
Smaller peers like Infosys and Wipro 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.
TCS' previous buyback offer of about Rs 16,000 crore had opened on December 18, 2020, and closed on January 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.
As of 10:57 am, TCS shares traded 1 per cent higher at Rs 3,893, outperforming the Sensex which was up 0.87 per cent.
