Directory services and ecommerce company JustDial will buy back shares worth Rs 165 crore from shareholders. In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange, JustDial said that buy back up to 10,61,499 fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each at a price of Rs 1,550 per equity share. "The buyback is being undertaken by the company to return surplus funds to its shareholders, which are over and above its ordinary capital requirements and in excess of any current investment plans", JustDial said in the notification. It added that the buy-back will improve earnings per share, achieve better capital structure and mitigate short-term market volatility. The buy-back will be undertaken from shareholders as of December 4 through a tender offer. Fund raising put on hold Earlier in June, JustDial put on hold its Rs 1,000 crore fund raising plan instead opted to buy back shares. The primary objective of the planned fundraise had been acquisitions with a focus on e-commerce. JustDial founder & CEO VSS Mani had at the time said that valuations of most companies were much higher than they should be and there were very few companies of substance, hence they put their fund raising plans on the back burner till the market settled down a bit. Tiger Global stake offload Over the past year, New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global has offloaded majority of its stake in JustDial. It first sold a 3.4% stake in JustDial for Rs 300 crore in March, followed by shedding an additional 2.1% stake for Rs 162…
