Tata Sons to participate in second round of TCS share buyback

Tata Sons had added over Rs 102.8 billion to its coffers from previous buyback in FY18

Tata Consultancy Services has informed that its promoter, Tata Sons, will be participating in the proposed share buyback initiative, in an exchange filing.

"We would like to inform you that the promoter and promoter group of the company have communicated the intention to participate in the proposed buyback," said the company in a statement.

The software giant had previously announced plans to buyback up to 76 million equity shares at Rs 2,100 per share for an amount not exceeding Rs 160 billion. Tata Sons had added over Rs 102.78 billion to its coffers from the previous buyback in FY18.

This is the second time the software major is offering to buy back its shares after it bought 56.1 million shares in April 2017 for Rs 160 billion at Rs 2,850 per share. The buyback had seen a sound response with a subscription of 221.39 per cent, or bids coming in for 124 million shares against 56.1 million shares on offer. 

The current buyback does not include expenses incurred for buyback. Apart from buying back shares, TCS gifted its investors with 1:1 bonus shares and a total dividend of Rs 50 per share for FY18 which amounts to a record 5,000 per cent per annum.

Last year’s buyback was much in line with buybacks from peers like Cognizant, Infosys and HCL Technologies, amid slow down in the sector. Infosys came out with such an offer last year to buy back Rs 130 billion worth of shares. Wipro had also bought back Rs 110 billion shares last year.

TCS  management had informed that the buyback would be complete by second quarter of the current fiscal (September). 

Analysts have previously hinted that the cash reserves of the company may not be affected much as the company already has around Rs 400 billion cash reserves while accrual of free cash flow is likely to be in the range of Rs 240 billion in the current financial year against the share purchase offer of Rs 160 billion for TCS.

Earlier this year, Tata Sons had also sold TCS shares valued at almost Rs 90 billion (1.63 per cent stake). The promoters hold around 72 per cent stake in TCS.