BSE board approves share buyback worth ₹374 cr at ₹816 apiece

The board of BSE has approved a share buyback proposal worth ₹374.80 crore at a price of ₹816 per equity share via a 'tender offer' route. BSE will buyback 45,93,137 stocks accounting for 3.39% of the total equity shares in the company.

The buyback represents a premium of 20% from the current level.

"The resultant Equity Shares to be bought back at the Buyback Offer Price are 45,93,137 Equity Shares, representing 3.39 % of the total number of Equity Shares in the total paid-up equity capital of the Company as on March 31, 2023," BSE says in a stock exchange filing today.

The buyback offer size represents 25% and 19.64% of the aggregate of the company’s paid-up equity capital and free reserves as per the audited financial statements of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2023.

The company said the "buyback offer price represents a premium of 34.09% over the closing price of the equity shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, June 30, 2023, the day preceding the date when intimation for the board meeting was sent to the stock exchange".

As per the latest data, public shareholders own 74.14% stake in BSE, while, 25.86% shares are owned by trading members and associates.

Reacting to the news, the BSE stock jumped over 4% to surge to the intra-day high of ₹710.65. At the current share price, the market cap of the company stands at ₹9,556 crore. The stock has seen a 15.36% jump in the past week, while it has surged 24.73% in the last month. In the past six months and year-to-date period, the BSE stock has risen 31.07% and 26.85%, respectively.

The BSE board says it has also constituted a committee called “‘buyback committee’ and delegated its powers to do such acts, deeds, matters, and things as it may, in its absolute discretion, deem necessary, expedient, usual or proper in relation to the proposed buyback”. The company board has appointed Vishal Bhat, company secretary and compliance officer as the compliance officer for the proposed buyback.

The board has appointed Nuvama Wealth Management Limited (formerly known as Edelweiss Securities Limited) as the manager to the buyback, which is subject to the approval of the shareholders by way of a special resolution at the ensuing eighteenth annual general meeting and all other applicable statutory approvals.

BSE's popular equity index - the S&P BSE SENSEX - is India's most widely tracked stock market benchmark index. It is traded internationally on the EUREX as well as leading exchanges of the BRCS nations (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa).

This week, BSE Sensex created new milestones after crossing the 65,500 mark for the first time while the Nifty50 index logged a fresh all-time high on the back of sustained fund inflows from foreign investors amid improving optimism about the Indian economy. With this, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed firms also crossed the historic ₹300 lakh crore mark for the first time.