TCS To Consider Share Buyback On June 15

The board of directors of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company at its meeting to be held on June 15, 2018, according to its filing on the exchanges.

The Mumbai-based company, however, did not disclose any further details about the buyback proposal.

During its earnings call quarter ending March 2018 , TCS’s CEO Rajesh Gopinathan had said the company's intention is "to keep capital return close to 80-100 percent of annual free cash flow".

Last year, TCS had undertaken a Rs 16,000-crore mega buyback offer, entailing 5.6 crore shares at a price of Rs 2,850 per equity share.

The buyback process had seen Tata Sons tendering over 3.6 crore shares, accounting for 64.2 percent of the total shares bought back by the company. Other large investors who participated in the buyback were the Government of Singapore, Copthall Mauritius Investments Ltd. and EuroPacific Growth Fund.

For financial year 2017-18, TCS returned Rs 26,800 crore to shareholders in both dividends and the buyback. For the full year, TCS' net cash from operations amounted to Rs 28,160 crore and free cash flow was Rs 26,360 crore.

Share buybacks typically improve earnings per share and return surplus cash to shareholders, while also supporting share price during period of sluggish market condition.

Indian IT companies have been under pressure to return excess cash on their books to shareholders through generous dividends and buybacks. Many IT firms, including Infosys (Rs 13,000 crore) and HCL Technologies (Rs 3,500 crore) had undertaken buyback schemes last year.