Infosys To Consider Share Buyback, Special Dividend On Jan. 11

Infosys Ltd. will on Jan. 11 consider its second share buyback and a special dividend second time in two years to reward shareholders.

The board will consider the proposal along with its third-quarter results, India’s second-largest software services provider said in an exchange filing.

The software exporter is expected to announce a Rs 11,200 crore buyback inline with its capital allocation policy. The buyback is likely to be for 16.8 crore shares at the last 30-day average price of Rs 667.4 apiece.

It is likely to be for 3.8 percent of the company's paid-up equity and will lead to EPS increase of nearly 4 percent for the financial year ending March 2020. Bloomberg consensus earnings per share pre-buyback for FY20 is Rs 41.72, giving a price to earnings multiple of 16 times.

As of Sept. 30, the company had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 17,851 crore and current investments worth Rs 7,580 crore, according to its filings. Its shares closed at Rs 670.05 today.

Infosys had announced a payout of $2 billion at the start of financial year 2019 as part of its policy to return 70 percent of free cash flow, which at the time translated to Rs 13,000 crore. This included the plan for a special dividend for Rs 2,600 crore.

The company announced its first-ever buyback worth Rs 13,000 crore in December 2017 and completed it in February 2018. It had then repurchased 11.3 crore shares at a pre-bonus price of Rs 1,150 apiece. The scrip went 1:1 ex-bonus in September.