TCS buyback: Tata Sons sells shares worth Rs 10,000 crore

Post completion of the buyback, where the company will buy shares and extinguish them, Tata Sons will hold 72.16 per cent of TCS.

New Delhi: Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, the holding company of salt-to-software Tata Group, has raised about Rs 10,000 crore from selling close to 1 per cent holding in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in the IT firm’s recently concluded share buyback. Tata Sons tendered 3.33 crore shares in the group’s most profitable firm’s share buyback plan, according to a company’s filing to the stock exchanges.

Post completion of the buyback, where the company will buy shares and extinguish them, Tata Sons will hold 72.16 per cent of TCS. At the buyback price of Rs 3,000 apiece, Tata Sons’ share sale amount comes to Rs 9,997 crore. Tata Investment Corporation – another promoter group firm – tendered shares worth about Rs 3.7 crore of TCS during the IT major’s Rs 16,000 crore-buyback offer.

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Over 5.33 crore equity shares were bought back under the offer – which closed on January 1 – at a price of Rs 3,000 apiece. The total amount utilised for the buyback offer was around Rs 16,000 crore. Tata Investment Corporation tendered 12,584 shares during the offer, a regulatory filing said on Thursday. This pegs the transaction at over Rs 3.77 crore.

A regulatory filing by TCS on Wednesday had shown that Tata Sons tendered 3.33 crore shares worth Rs 9,997 crore during the buyback offer that opened on December 18, 2020. Among others, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and RBC Emerging Markets Equity Fund tendered around 16.69 lakh shares and 7.69 lakh shares of TCS, respectively. The funds received by Tata Sons through the transaction could bolster the salt-to-software conglomerate’s efforts of strengthening its digital commerce play. There are reports that Tata Sons is looking at picking up a majority stake in the e-grocery platform BigBasket to take on rivals like Amazon and Mukesh Ambani-owned JioMart.