SAIL gets shareholders’ nod for shares buyback
22 Sep 2012
Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) announced on Friday that it has got its shareholders' approval to buy back its shares.
This does not however imply that the state-owned steel producer will immediately start buying back its shares. "It is an enabling provision that has been accepted. So far there was no provision in the articles of association of the company to this effect. So we have made this provision and got this approved by the shareholders.
''Now if there is a need or our board decides, we can buy back shares," SAIL chairman C S Verma told newspersons after the company's annual general meeting in New Delhi.
SAIL was sitting on cash reserves of Rs6,415 crore as of March 2012. It is among the public sector undertakings earmarked for disinvestment by the government. In July, the union cabinet had approved the sale of 10.82 per cent of its stake in SAIL.
Verma declined to put any particular time frame for the share buyback. "Today only we have got the enabling approval. So let's see, let time pass by and let me also have review of the market conditions," he said.
On the disinvestment proposal, Verma said, "The timing has to be decided by the department of disinvestment."