TCS to finalise buyback policy

New Delhi, Feb. 23: India’s largest software services firm TCS will articulate in more “explicit” terms its capital allocation policy in the next few months for its shareholders.

Marketmen have been pushing for bringing in a more structured capital allocation strategy for TCS, a crown jewel in the $103-billion Tata Group.

“There has been a lot of talk about this. We will be articulating our policy (on capital allocation) in more explicit terms...,” TCS’ newly appointed CEO Rajesh Gopinathan told PTI.

“We will articulate that in next few months partially, we should articulate some more formal policy in the next quarter or so,” he said.

The company has maintained a “consistent track record of very systematic and generous distribution” of capital in the past, he added.

Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran had last week said TCS had received suggestions from investors over the need for certainty on dividend policy along with share buyback to distribute large amount of cash to its shareholders.

Following this, TCS announced a `16,000crore buyback earlier this

MARKETMEN have been pushing for bringing in a more structured capital allocation strategy for TCS

TCS has a cash pile of `43,169 crore, which is nearly 10% of the company’s m-cap

week, which is the largest so far in the Indian corporate history.

Mumbai-headquartered TCS has a cash pile of `43,169 crore, which is nearly 10 per cent of the company’s market capitalisation.

Mr Gopinathan said the company has over the past many years announced normal dividends for 1-2 years and then a special dividend every 2nd or 3rd year.

“The last time we did, it was June 2015 and so that is 2 years from now, that we are doing it (capital return)... Rather than policy, track record and history is a far superior form of confidence than a stated policy for future. When you look at our track record, we have a consistent track record of very systematic and generous distribution,” he said.

—PTI