Oil India to buy back shares with Rs 1,085 cr

​New Delhi: State-owned Oil India Ltd will buy back 5.04 crore of its shares for a little over Rs 1,085 crore as part of the government's push to cash-rich PSUs to part with their surplus either by paying higher dividends or through share buybacks so as to help meet revenue targets.

In a regulatory filing, OIL said its board has approved buyback of shares at an aggregate of no more than 10 per cent of the fully paid-up equity share capital and free reserves of the company. The board approved “the buyback by the company of its fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each not exceeding 5.05 crore equity shares (representing about 4.45 per cent of the total number of equity shares in the paid-up share capital of the company) at a price of Rs 215 per equity share payable in cash for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 1085.72 crore,” it said. 

The nation's second large oil explorer had a little less than Rs 20,000 crore of reserves. OIL shares closed at Rs 218.78 on the BSE on Thursday. Friday was a trading holiday on account of Gurunanak Jayanti. The government is targeting a minimum Rs 5,000 crore through share buyback offers of state-owned firms like Coal India and BHEL. 

Besides OIL, at least half a dozen other central PSUs have disclosed share buyback programmes. Prominent among these include NHPC, BHEL, NALCO, NLC, Cochin Shipyard and KIOCL that could fetch the government a little over Rs 3,000 crore. The government is expected to participate in each of the share buyback programme of these PSUs.