IT major, Infosys, on Tuesday said its board will consider proposals to buy back equity shares, payment of special dividend and the implementation of capital allocation policy at its meeting on January 11.

"Board will consider proposals, including but not to limited to, buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the company, as well as payment of special dividend, for implementation of the capital allocation policy at its meeting to be held on January 11, 2019," said the IT behemoth in a regulatory filing.

The country's No. 2 software services exporter said in April 2018 that it had identified an amount of up to Rs 13,000 crore to be paid to shareholders through a special dividend of Rs 10 per share, which would result in a payout of approximately Rs 2,600 crore and an amount of up to approximately Rs 10,400 crore to be paid out to shareholders for the FY 2019 in a manner as decided by the board.

"The outcome of the board meeting will be disseminated to the stock exchanges after the meeting on January 11," added the filing.

The $11-billion outsourcing firm had completed its maiden buyback of 11.3-crore equity shares in December 2017 of Rs 5 face value for Rs 13,000 crore at Rs 1,150 per share.

"The buyback of 11,30,43,478 shares was made under the tender offer route from November 30 and closed on December 14," said the company in a filing on December 23, 2017, on the BSE.

Among the retail investors who then sold shares more than 1 percent of the total shares include Rohan Murthy (13,92,682 shares), son of co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, and Sudha Gopalakrishnan (15,00,000 shares), wife of another co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Sudha held the largest share among the promoters, with 2.14 percent shareholding.

Among the institutional investors were LIC of India (61,13,787 shares), Government of Singapore (24,66,354) and Franklin Templeton Investment Funds (1728,865 shares).

Kotak Mahindra Capital Co Ltd and JP Morgan India Ltd were the issue managers for the buyback of shares.

The offer size was 20.51 percent of the total paid-up capital and free reserves, aggregating up to 11.3-crore shares or 4.92 percent of the total shares.

Share buybacks typically improve earnings per share and return surplus cash to shareholders, while also supporting share price during period of sluggish market condition.

With inputs from IANS.

First Published:Jan 8, 2019 5:39 PM IST