Tata Sons has tendered shares worth ₹9,997 crore of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) through the IT major’s buyback offer, as it is shoring up funds ahead of its proposed array of acquisitions.

The holding company of all Tata group firms pared close to one per cent holding in TCS, the group’s crown jewel, by selling nearly 3.33 crore shares. The shares were tendered at ₹3,000 a share, according to a stock exchange notice.

Tata Investment Corporation - another promoter group firm - tendered TCS’ ₹3.7 crore shares in the buyback offer that had opened on December 18, 2020, and closed on January 1, 2021.

LIC to sell in buyback

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (16.6 lakh shares) and RBC Emerging Markets Equity Fund (7.69 lakh shares) among others also tendered shared of TCS. The total amount utilised for the buyback offer was at about ₹16,000 crore.

Post the buyback (as on January 6), the promoters’ stake in TCS stood at 72.19 per cent and the remaining 27.81 per cent was held by public, foreign investors and financial institutions (banks, NBFCs, insurance firms and mutual funds).

Tata Group is in various stages of acquiring Alibaba-backed bigbasket and Cafe Coffee Day’s (CCD) vending machine business, and has also bid for Air India.

Tata Group is looking to acquire a minimum of 51 per cent stake in bigbasket, but is keen to increase it to 80 per cent depending on the price. It will invest up to about $1.5 billion in bigbasket, in which China’s Alibaba owns 29 per cent. Another Tata Group firm, Tata Consumer Products, is in talks to acquire the coffee vending business of CCD’s subsidiary Coffee Day Global Ltd (CGDL) for at least ₹1,000 crore.

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