BSE okays buyback at ₹1,100

Less than a year after listing, BSE has decided to reward investors with a buyback offer. The board of directors of the country’s oldest exchange has decided to buy back shares at ₹1,100 apiece from the open market.

However, it has not specified when the open offer would begin and the number of shares it would buy back.

The exchange on Monday said the board of directors at its meeting

inter alia approved a buyback proposal for purchase of the company’s fully paid-up equity shares of face value of ₹2 each from the shareholders/beneficial owners of the company at a price not exceeding ₹1,100 per equity share (maximum buyback price) from the open market through stock exchange mechanism according to regulations laid down by SEBI.

Stellar debut

BSE came out with an initial public offering in January and issued shares to investors at ₹806 a share. It saw a stellar debut on the rival exchange NSE and jumped nearly 33 per cent to touch ₹1,070.55.

On Day One, the shares opened at ₹1,085 and hit a high of ₹1,200 and a low of ₹1,065.10.

The exchange raised ₹1,234 crore through the IPO, with 302 shareholders selling their shares. Singapore Exchange sold 5.09 million shares or a 4.7 per cent stake, to make an exit from the bourse.

Individual shareholders, mainly brokers and trading members, held 56.83 per cent in BSE, before the IPO. The rest was held by institutional holders such as the Life Insurance Corporation of India, State Bank of India and Bajaj Holdings, besides the foreign bourses.

The IPO was subscribed more than 51 times. However, in the last three months, the price movement in the stock has been lacklustre and has ranged below ₹1,000. It touched a low of ₹886 last month even as the bellwether Sensex made new highs.

On Monday, it gained 2 per cent to close at ₹982.