India’s largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday said its shareholders have approved its up to ₹16,000 crore share buyback plan. Last month, TCS’ board of directors had approved a proposal to buy back up to 5,33,33,333 equity shares of the company at ₹3,000 per scrip for an aggregate amount not exceeding ₹16,000 crore.“…the members of the company have duly passed the special resolution approving the Buyback,” TCS said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The voting, which started on October 20 and ended on November 18, saw 99.57% of the votes being cast in favour of the buyback offer. There was 100% voting in favour of the proposal by the promoters, 98.11% by public institutional shareholders and 98.43% by other shareholders. In another filing, TCS said it has fixed November 28 as the record date for the buyback.“…the company has fixed Saturday, November 28, 2020, as the Record Date for the purpose of determining the entitlement and the names of the equity shareholders who shall be eligible to participate in the Buyback,” it said. TCS’ smaller rival Wipro has also announced an up to ₹9,500-crore buyback plan at ₹400 per equity share. TCS CEO and Managing Director Rajesh Gopinathan had earlier said the company is focused on its policy to return capital to shareholders. The Mumbai-based company’s cash reserves stood at ₹58,500 crore as of September 2020. Last year, TCS had offered a special dividend and this time it is undertaking a buyback, he had noted. In October last year, TCS’ board had declared a special dividend of ₹40 per equity share. In 2018, TCS had undertaken a share buyback of about ₹16,000 crore. In 2017 too the company had conducted a similar share purchase exercise. The company had said its buyback offer was part of its long-term capital allocation policy of returning excess cash to shareholders.
