Infy’s 2nd buy-back in 2 yrs; worth 8,260 cr

IT major Infosys has announced second buy-back in less than two years of the time, with the latest one amounting to a whopping Rs 8,260 crore.

The buyback value per share is at a premium of 14.6% per share on the current market price. The buy-back value approved per share stands at Rs 800. On Friday, the company’s shares closed 0.58% up on BSE on Friday, compared with the previous close, at Rs Rs 683.5 per scrip.

The company has constituted a buyback committee ("Buyback Committee"), comprising the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Financial Officer, the Deputy Chief Financial Officer, the General Counsel and the Company Secretary of the Company. “The Buyback Committee has the power to do all such acts, deeds, matters and things as it may, in its absolute discretion, deem necessary, expedient, usual or proper in connection with the Buyback,” the company said.

The company has also announced a special dividend of Rs 4 per equity share and fixed January 25, 2019 as record date for the special dividend and January 28, 2019 as payment date. The company will spend further Rs 2,107 crore over the special dividend.

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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 capital allocation policy, the company, in April 2017, had decided to return Rs 13,000 crore out of its free cash flow every year to the company’s shareholders.

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, while the rest is owned by the public.