Infosys is likely to close its share buyback programme after the company said it had utilised 99.99 per cent of the Rs 9,200 crore corpus it had set aside for the purpose.
The committee’s buyback committee will meet on Wednesday (September 8) to discuss a range of options, including the closure of the share buyback programme that was announced on April 14. Under the plan, the company had committed to buy shares from the market at a maximum price of Rs 1,750 per share.
On Monday, the stock closed at Rs 1,730 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 1.75 per cent. During the buyback period, the highest price that the stock reached was Rs 1,748.45 on August 17.
The buyback is part of the Bangalore-based company’s capital return of Rs 15,600 crore, which also includes a final dividend of Rs 6,400 crore.
Effective fiscal 2020, Infosys had enhanced its capital allocation plan and said it will return 85 per cent of free cash flow cumulatively over five years via buyback and dividends.
Chief financial officer Nilanjan Roy had said in the conference call after announcing Q1 results that the company’s return on equity (ROE) had risen to 29.3 per cent in the first quarter from 27.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal. “ROE has increased by over 3.4 per cent in last two years, driven by a robust capital allocation policy,” Roy had added.