Wipro Will Consider Share Buyback On 16 April

Wipro Ltd announced post market hours that it will be considering a share buyback on 16 April. In a regulatory filing, the IT giant said, "The board will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company at its meeting scheduled to be held on April 16, 2019. The outcome of the board meeting will be disseminated to the stock exchanges after conclusion of the board meeting on April 16, 2019."

The financial results for the last quarter are also scheduled to be announced on the same day.

Shares of Wipro Ltd closed 2.76 percent higher on Wednesday at Rs 281 on BSE. During the day the stock rose to an intraday high of Rs 281.80 on reports that the IT giant is set to announce its biggest buyback ever worth Rs 12,000 crore ($1.7 billion). A Times of India report said that the IT giant is expected to buy back shares at Rs 320 a piece, that is at a 17 percent premium to its previous close of Rs 273.45 on BSE. It also said that SEBI has approved the buyback plan.

This would be the third buyback for Wipro, that had bought back Rs 2,500 crore worth of shares in 2016 and shares worth Rs 11,000 crore in November-December 2017. A buyback can be conducted once in 12 months. These are done by cash-rich companies like those in the IT sector that reward investors by returning the surplus cash.

The announcement by the company clarified the lack of clarity on whether a buyback would take place considering that an amalgamation scheme is pending with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The company is looking to merge its four subsidiaries namely, Wipro Technologies Austria, Wipro Information Technology Austria, NewLogic Technologies SARL and Appirio India Cloud Solutions with Wipro Ltd.