P & G Earmarks Rs 85 Crore For Share Buyback

Procter & Gamble India has earmarked Rs 85 crore for buying back its shares after the new Companies Bill is passed by Parliament.

In a resolution slated to be discussed at the company's 33rd annual general meeting on September 22 in Mumbai, P&G states that it proposes to complete the buy-back within 15 months from the date of the passing of the resolution, or from the date the new Companies Act comes into force, whichever is later.

The 65 per cent subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble has also created a new post of vice-chairman and managing director and appointed Sumit Bhattacharya to the post.

Bhattacharya is currently vice-chairman of P&G Home Products, the 100 per cent subsidiary of the US major. Before that he was the finance director of P&G India.

After the 1:2 bonus issue, P&G has decided to increase its authorised capital from Rs 15 crore to Rs 25 crore.

"The directors are of the opinion that the buy-back of shares as above will lead to improvement in the intrinsic worth of equity shares and is considered beneficial to shareholders," states the resolution.

With this P&G has joined the growing list of companies who have announced plans of buy-back. Key among them are Reliance Industries and Bajaj Auto, Zandu Pharma, Jindal Iron and Essar Steel.

The new appointment at P&G India comes at a time when H Miexner has taken over as chief executive office of P&G's entire operations in India. Apart from the publicly held P&G India, there is the 100 per cent P&G Home Products and P&G Distribution, formerly called P&G Godrej.