Infosys ₹9,200 cr share buyback to open on Friday

The Board approval for the buyback was granted on April 14, 2021, and the shareholders’ nod was received on June 19, 2021, at the company’s 40th annual general meeting, the IT major said in a regulatory filing.

Infosys has issued a public announcement on June 23 in various newspapers for the buyback of its equity shares from the open market through the stock exchange route, a regulatory filing said on Wednesday.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd was appointed as the manager of the buyback, it added.

As per the proposed timeline, the date of commencement of the buyback has been set for June 25, 2021, and the last date for the buyback (whichever is earlier) would be December 24, 2021 (6 months from the date of the opening of the buyback) or when the company completes the buyback by deploying the amount equivalent to the maximum buyback size.

“Subject to the market price of the equity shares being equal to the maximum buyback price, the indicative maximum number of equity shares bought back would be 5,25,71,428 equity shares, comprising approximately 1.23 per cent of the paid-up equity share capital of the company as of March 31, 2021,” the advertisement showed.

If the equity shares are bought back at a price below the maximum buyback price, the actual number of equity shares bought back could exceed the maximum buyback shares, but will always be subject to the maximum buyback size, it added.

Also, Infosys will utilise at least 50 per cent of the amount earmarked as the maximum buyback size for the buyback i.e. ₹4,600 crore. Based on the minimum buyback size and the maximum buyback price, the company will purchase an indicative minimum of 2,62,85,714 equity shares.

The funds for the implementation of the buyback will be sourced out of the free reserves of the company or such other source, as may be permitted by the Buyback Regulations or the Companies Act, it noted.

“In terms of Regulation 16(ii) of the Buyback Regulations, the buyback is being implemented by way of open market purchases through the Indian stock exchanges and is not extended to the promoters, promoter group and persons in control of the company,” it added.

From FY20, Infosys had enhanced its capital allocation plan and had said it will return 85 per cent of free cash flow cumulatively over a five-year period via buyback and dividends.

In April, Infosys Board had recommended a capital return of ₹15,600 crore, including a final dividend of ₹6,400 crore and open market buyback of shares of ₹9,200 crore.

As per the disclosure of voting results of the AGM on June 19, the proposal for the buyback offer received 98.83 per cent votes in favour of the proposal and 1.17 per cent against it.

In April, Infosys reporterd a 17.5 per cent rise in net profit at ₹5,076 crore for the March 2021 quarter over the year-ago period buoyed by large deal wins, and announced an up to ₹9,200 crore buyback programme at a maximum price of ₹1,750 per share.

Infosys expects FY22 revenue to grow 12-14 per cent in constant currency, backed by good, broad-based demand across industries.

The country’s second largest software services major’s net profit (after minority interest) was at ₹4,321 crore in the January-March 2020 quarter. Its revenue grew 13.1 per cent to ₹26,311 crore year-on-year from ₹23,267 crore.

“Its been an exceptional year and exceptional quarter. Our year-on-year constant currency (CC) growth was at 9.6 per cent for Q4 and for the full-year our growth was 5 per cent in CC. Digital business grew by 34 per cent y-o-y in Q4 and now represents 51.5 per cent of our overall revenue,” Infosys CEO Salil Parekh told reporters.