Indiabulls Ventures climbs 9% as company board approves share buyback

Shares of Indiabulls Ventures rose 9% in Friday early market hours after its board approved a buyback of 6.67 crore equity shares at Rs 150 per share in a meeting on October 11.

Indiabulls Ventures stock price climbed 8.9% to intraday high of Rs 108.5 apiece on the BSE and outperformed the 'Financial Services' sector by 5.56% today.

The regulatory statement read," Indiabulls Ventures Limited (at its meeting held on October 11, has approved a proposal of Rs. 1,000 cr of buyback of up to 6 cr fully paid-up equity shares of face value Rs 2 each, representing 12.61% of it's total existing fully paid-up equity capital at Rs 150 per equity share."

"The buyback size being more than 10% of company's paid-up equity capital and free reserves will be subject to the approval of shareholders by way of a special resolution, through a postal ballot," the filing added.

As of September 30, 2019, promoters held 35.53% stake in the company, while foreign shareholding stood at 39.30%. Indian Public and Corporates' shareholding stood around 24.89%, while banks and mutual funds held 0.28% stake in the company.

Indiabulls Ventures stock has fallen 72% year-to-date, 31% over a month and over 6% in seven days.

The stock value has fallen over the last few months amid reports of corporate governance issues and concerns over Indiabulls Group, whose promoters are facing allegations of financial irregularities. This was coupled with uncertainty over the group's plan to merge Indiabulls Housing Finance and Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which was ultimately turned down by RBI on Wednesday.

By Rupa Burman Roy

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