IT major Infosys will be considering yet another buyback of shares and special dividend as part of its capital allocation programme on January 11 when the board meets to announce third quarter financial results.
“The Board of the Company will consider proposal(s), including but not limited to, buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the Company, payment of special dividend, for implementation of the Capital Allocation Policy at its meeting to be held on January 11, 2019,” the company said in a filing to BSE.
The board is likely to consider a premium of 20-25% per share on the current market price, according to the sources. On Tuesday, the company’s shares closed at Rs 669.85 per scrip, a 0.19% lower compared with the previous close on BSE.
The size of the buyback is likely to be Rs 10,400 crore, the amount remaining from the Rs 13,000 corpus of the free cash flow that the company distributes among its shareholders every year.
The company will be conveying its decision regarding buyback, along with its third-quarter results.
In June 2018, the company had announced a special dividend of Rs 10 per share ($0.15 per ADR) resulting in a payout of approximately Rs 2,600 crore (approximately $400 million).
Last year, Infosys bought back 113,043,478 equity shares at a price of Rs 1,150 per share for an aggregate amount of Rs 13,000 crore.
The company’s December 2017 share buyback programme saw participation from LIC, Singapore government, Sudha Gopalakrishnan (wife of co-founder S Gopalakrishnan) and Rohan Murty (son of co-founder NR Narayana Murthy) among others.
As part of its silver jubilee of listing its stock, the company had announced a bonus issue of 1:1 for all its shareholders in July 2018.
As of date, 12.82% of the company’s shares are owned by the promoter group.
Meanwhile, Sudip Singh, the global head of the energy, utilities, resources and services unit of Infosys has quit the company, after a two decade long stint.
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