Buybacks and offers for sale

How to apply: you tender your shares through your own broker (in its app, under corporate actions or offers) while the offer is open. The company’s website and NSE page carry the letter of offer with the tender form and the registrar’s details.

Source: NSE tender offers, refreshed every 15 minutes. Price is the offer price per share; shares sought is the size of the offer.

To take part in a tender-offer buyback you must hold the shares at the end of the record date. Shares bought on or after the ex-date do not count.

Source: NSE corporate actions. Where NSE gives no record date, the ex-date is shown.

Source: NSE board-meeting announcements. A meeting to consider a buyback does not mean one will be approved.

No offer for sale is open on NSE today.

How to apply: an OFS is bid for only through your broker, on the day for your category (non-retail first, retail usually the next trading day), at or above the floor price.

Source: NSE offers for sale, refreshed every 15 minutes.

Source: NSE tender offers.

Source: NSE offers for sale.

Buyback by tender offer

The company offers to buy its own shares at a fixed price, usually above the market price. Shareholders on the record date can tender through their broker during the offer window (at least five working days). A part of the offer is kept for small shareholders (holding shares worth up to ₹2 lakh on the record date). If more shares are tendered than the company wants, it accepts them in proportion; the rest come back to your demat account.

Buyback through the open market

The company buys on the exchange over several months, like any buyer. There is nothing to apply for.

Open offer and delisting

An acquirer buying a large stake must offer to buy more from public shareholders (an open offer); a promoter taking a company off the exchange buys out the public (delisting, often through reverse book building, where shareholders name their price). Both use the same tender window through your broker.

Offer for sale (OFS)

Promoters, or the government, sell part of their holding through the exchange over two days: non-retail investors bid on the first, retail investors (bids up to ₹2 lakh) on the second. Bids at or above the floor price are filled at the price set by the bidding; retail bidders sometimes get a discount.

Tax on buybacks has changed in recent years. Check the current rules with the Income Tax Department or a tax adviser before you tender.