Aptech, the IT education firm, announced that it has received approval from shareholders for its share buy-back proposal through postal ballot. The board had already approved the proposal at its meeting on May 13. “The maximum price of the buyback of shares will be up to Rs.82 per share, and the aggregate consideration for the buyback will be up to Rs.64.66 crore,” Aptech said in a statement. At full subscription, the buyback would help increase the promoters’ stake from 38.56 per cent to 46 per cent. It is scheduled to open on July 24.
As news of the buyback came in, the share price moved up on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). From Monday’s close of Rs.58.6, it opened higher at Rs.58.8 to reach a high of Rs.63.25 before closing at Rs.62.55, a gain of 6.74 per cent. On reasons for the buy-back proposal, Ninad Karpe, CEO & MD, Aptech, told The Hindu , that “the board felt optimistic about our future and we have about Rs.100 crore lying with us. We are a zero debt company so we thought we would use the surplus cash”.
Aptech also provides retail and corporate solutions, English language training and aviation management.
“We are focusing on Africa and recently signed up in Senegal, Rwanda and Ghana. The focus is not only on English but also French speaking countries and we should be in 18-20 countries in next two years”.
Mr. Karpe said “Going forward, we are looking through two filters — career education and global appeal”.
