TCS announces up to $2.4 billion share buyback

MUMBAI (

Reuters

) - India's top software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) will buy back shares worth up to 160 billion rupees ($2.4 billion), it said on Monday, potentially increasing pressure on rival Infosys to follow suit. The TCS board has approved the buyback of up to 56.1 million shares at 2,850 rupees apiece, the company said in a stock exchange filing, returning cash to shareholders at a substantial premium to Friday's closing share price of 2,407.90 rupees. The company's share price rose by as much as 6.1 percent in Mumbai before closing with a gain of 3.9 percent at 2,502.20 rupees. Its announcement comes at a time when some former senior executives at Infosys, India's second-biggest software services exporter, have demanded a share buyback amid friction between its founders and the board. TCS, part of the salt-to-software Tata conglomerate, had total cash and investments of 431.69 billion rupees at Dec. 31. Infosys had cash of 356.97 billion rupees in December. ($1 = 66.9650 rupees) (Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by David Goodman)