Five firms buying back shares worth Rs 60b this year

NEW DELHI, Apr 19 (PTI): As many as five listed companies, including Cairn India and DCM Shriram, have announced plans to buyback shares worth nearly Rs 60 billion from shareholders this year so far. Other three firms that have launched their buyback offers are Isgec Heavy Engineering, Gujarat Apollo Industries and Indo Borax & Chemicals.
Together, all the five firms have planned to infuse a capital of Rs 59.41 billion to repurchase 190 million shares from their respective shareholders through open market route on stock exchanges, according to The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data.
Cairn India's whopping Rs 57.25-billion buyback offer, which was launched in January, is the major among five programmes this year.
These five firms would have to complete their buyback plans within a period of six months from date of opening their offer and it would also be mandatory for the companies to repurchase at least 50 per cent of the offers, under the new norms issued by Sebi in August, 2013.
Those not able to meet the target would be barred from launching another offer for a period of one year while they could also be imposed with a penalty amounting to maximum of 2.5 per cent on the funds lying in the escrow account.