TCS to consider share buyback on Jan 12 board meet

Bengaluru, 8 January Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will become the first large IT services firm in India to consider a buy back of its shares at its upcoming board meet scheduled on January 12.

"The Board of Directors will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company, at its meeting to be held on January 12, 2022," the company said in an exchange filing on Friday.

The Tata group company will announce its third quarter results of this financial year on January 12. At the end of the September 2021 quarter, the Mumbai-based company had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 51,950 crore.

TCS had held a buyback of shares worth Rs 16,000 crore in the last fiscal year. Over 5.33 crore shares were bought back under this programme at Rs 3,000 apiece. Similarly, the company bought back shares worth Rs 16,000 crore at Rs 2,100 apiece in 2018. A similar exercise was also conducted in 2017 as well.

Large Indian IT services companies are giving back their surplus cash to shareholders frequently in recent years.

Companies like Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies are the other companies to conduct share repurchase as part of their capital allocation policies. Infosys had bought back over 5.58 crore equity shares as part of its Rs 9,200-crore buyback offer last fiscal. Similarly, Wipro had also completed a Rs 9,500 crore buyback in January last year.