Aster DM Healthcare hits 52-week high as board mulls share buyback

The board of healthcare services provider will consider a proposal to buy back its equity shares at a board meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday, January 9

Shares of Aster DM Healthcare gained 5 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 173 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company announced a share buyback plan.

“The board of healthcare services provider will be considering a proposal to buyback its equity shares at a board meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday, January 9, 2020,” Aster DM Healthcare said in a regulatory filing.

Aster DM Healthcare debuted at stock market on February 26, 2018. The company had raised Rs 980 crore through initial public offer at an issue price of Rs 190 per share. However, since listing, the stock has closed above its issue price just one day on May 9, 2018.

The primary objective of a share buyback programme is to arrest the fall in the value of a stock by reducing the supply of the stock, which essentially pushes up the share price through a better price to earnings (P/E) multiple.

Since listing, the stock has underperformed the market by falling 8 per cent, as compared to 18 per cent rally in the S&P BSE Sensex till Monday.

As of September 2019, the promoter & promoter group held 37.80 per cent stake in the company. Olympus Capital Asia Investments Limited held 20.36 per cent holding, while Rimco (Mauritius) Limited held 10.11 per cent stake, shareholding pattern data shows.

Foreign Portfolio Investors held 10.27 per cent stake, followed by Non-Resident Indian (5.75 per cent), individual shareholders (4.37 per cent), mutual funds (3.73 per cent) and Foreign Venture Capital Investors (2.66 per cent).

At 12:56 pm, the stock had partially erased its early morning gain and was trading 1 per cent higher at Rs 168 on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.74 per cent at 40,975 points. A combined 239,733 equity shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far.