IT major Wipro on Thursday announced a share buyback of up to Rs 12,000 crore through the tender offer route, entailing 26.96 crore equity shares at a buyback price of Rs 445 apiece.

The buyback price is at an 18 per cent premium to Thursday’s closing price of Rs 374.35 a share on the BSE.

Wipro CEO and managing director Thierry Delaporte said the share buyback is part of the company’s philosophy to deliver consistent returns to shareholders.

In a filing, Wipro said its board “...has approved a proposal to buyback up to 26.96 crore equity shares, being 4.91 per cent of the total paid-up equity shares of the company, for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 12,000 crore for Rs 445...per equity share”.

Members of the promoter and promoter group ofthe company have indicated their intention to participate in the proposed buyback, it added.

Wipro had major buyback programmes in the past. In April 2019, the company announced a Rs 10,500 crore buyback offer at an offer price of Rs 325 per share.

In November 2020, it announced up to Rs 9,500 crore share buyback plan for Rs 400 per share.

Wipro’s Q4 FY2023 show was muted, as the company reported a net profit of Rs 3,074.5 crore, a decline of 0.4 per cent year-on-year. The revenue rose 11.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs 23,190.3 crore.

TechM net declines

The fifth biggest IT company by revenues, Tech Mahindra, on Thursday reported a 34.69 per cent decline in its March quarter net at Rs 1,117.8 crore due to narrowing profit margins.

For the entire fiscal, its profit after tax came down to Rs 4,831.5 crore against Rs 5,566 crore in FY22.

Its overall revenue grew by over 13 per cent to Rs 13,718 crore in the reporting quarter, and almost flat when compared to the preceding December quarter.

LTIMindtree profit flat

LTIMindtree, the merged entity of Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) and Mindtree, logged a net profit of Rs 1,114 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, which was flat compared with Rs 1,109 crore clocked in the same period last year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, profit rose 11.4 per cent from Rs 1,000 crore in the December quarter of FY22.

The L&T group company reported a revenue from operations at Rs 8,691 crore, up 22 per cent against Rs 7,128 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Sequentially, the revenue grew 0.8 per cent from Rs 8,620 crore in Q3FY23.

For the full financial year, profit grew 11.7 per cent year on year to Rs 4,410.3 crore.