Wipro board to consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares on 20 July

The country’s third largest IT firm Wipro today said its board will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares on 20 July. With this, Wipro joins the growing roaster of Indian IT firms that have announced buyback offers to return surplus cash on their books to their shareholders. Share buybacks typically improve earnings per share and return surplus cash to shareholders while also supporting share price during periods of sluggish market conditions. “Wipro Ltd…Board will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company on July 20, 2017,” the company said in a regulatory filing. The company’s board is meeting July 19 and 20, 2017 to also consider Wipros first quarter results. The company did not disclose the size of the buyback. As on March 2017, Wipro had cash and cash equivalents totalling Rs 5,271 crore (USD 813 million) on its books. Among Indian IT companies, TCS, which had a cash pile of over Rs 43,000 crore, has already completed a Rs 16,000 crore buyback programme earlier this year. The Infosys board has already identified an amount of up to Rs 13,000 crore (USD 2 billion) to be paid out to shareholders during financial year 2018, through dividend and share buyback.