Tata Sons tenders shares worth Rs 9,997 crore in TCS buyback offer

07-01-2020

TCS promoter Tata Sons has tendered shares worth Rs 9,997 crore in the Rs 16,000-crore buyback offer of the company that closed on January 1, 2021. According to a regulatory filing by the IT giant, Tata Sons has tendered more than 3.33 crore shares in the buyback offer. Post the buyback, promoter holding in the company has increased to 72.19% as compared to 72.05%. Tata Sons now holds 267.02 crore shares of the company as compared to 270.35 crore shares earlier. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and RBC Emerging Markets Equity Fund tendered around 16.69 lakh shares and 7.69 lakh shares of TCS respectively in the buyback offer. Worth mentioning here is that TCS offered Rs 3,000 per share in the buyback as compared to its current market price of Rs 3,035. This was the third buyback by the company in the last four years. TCS had undertaken a share buyback of about Rs 16,000 crore in 2017 and 2018. In the latest buyback TCS bought 5.33 crore equity shares in total from the public. Following the buyback, total outstanding shares of the company now stands at 369.91 crore. The Mumbai-based IT behemoth has been following a policy of returning capital to its shareholders through buyback as it is a tax-effective mode of returning cash to shareholders. Late last year, TCS CEO and Managing Director Rajesh Gopinathan said the company is focused on its policy to return capital to shareholders. TCS had cash reserves worth Rs 58,500 crore as of September 30, 2020. Other cash-rich IT companies are also following a similar strategy. Wipro�s Rs 9500 crore share buyback offer is already open since December 29 and will close on January 11. Wipro is buying back shares at a price of Rs 400 apiece as compared to its market price of Rs 406.70. Worth mentioning here is that Wipro shares have rallied over 80% over the past six months.