Ajanta Pharma has set the 24 March 2023 as the record date to determine the names of equity shareholders, who will be entitled to participate in the Rs 315 crore share buyback offer of up to 22.1 lakh equity shares of the company with a face value of Rs 2 each at the price of Rs 1425 per equity share. Ajanta Pharma shares rose over half a percent to Rs 1201 on Friday. At the current price, the premium over the offer price stands at 18.7%. Since the announcement of the share buyback on March 6 the shares have risen nearly 3% while they have plunged over 7% in last one year. The market capitalisation of the company at the present price is Rs 15,394.24 crore.
“While the tender-based buyback price looks attractive it is a very small buyback accounting for just 1.7 per cent of the curr equity. Hence this may be good in the long term but in the near term stock is unlikely to get rerated as buyback is very small,” said Avinash Gorakshakar, Head of Research, Profitmart Securities.
The company informed exchanges that the buyback is less than 10% of the total paid-up equity capital and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) is appointed as the designated stock exchange for the purpose of the buyback. The company’s board has appointed Edelweiss Financial Services
In Q3 FY22, the company’s net sales stood at Rs 971.77 crore up 15.98% from Rs. 837.91 crore in December 2021. Quarterly net profit was Rs 134.51 crore down 29.86% from Rs 191.78 crore in December 2021. EBITDA stood at Rs 204.48 crore down 22.43% from Rs 263.61 crore in the year-ago period and the company’s EPS decreased to Rs 10.50 in December 2022 from Rs. 22.16 in December 2021.