The boards of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Manganese Ore India (MOIL) have, in separate meetings, approved buyback of about 20 percent of the companies' shares listed on the exchanges. While NMDC has offered to buy back the shares at Rs 94 a share, MOIL said it will pay Rs 248 a share. At a meeting held on Tuesday and intimated to the exchanges on Wednesday, iron ore mining major NMDC said that the board has approved the buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 1 each not exceeding 80.08 crores in number, representing 20.20 per cent of the paid-up share capital of the company. This is less than the 25 percent cap on the total number of equity shares in the paid-up share capital of the company (99.11 crore equity shares) at a price of Rs 94 a share of face value Rs 1 each payable in cash for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 7,527.76 crore. According to the audited accounts of the company for the financial year ended March 31, 2016, this is below the 25 percent of the aggregate of the fully paid-up share capital and free reserves. Similarly, the MOIL board, in Nagpur on Tuesday, approved a proposal to buy back fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each not exceeding 3.48 crore shares, representing 20.72 percent of the company's equity base. This pegs the buyback offer size at Rs 863.34 crore. The company has appointed IDBI Capital Market Service as the lead manager to the offer. These buybacks will be by done via the tender offer route as prescribed under the buyback regulations The respective boards of directors noted the intention of the promoter of the company to participate in the proposed buyback and constituted a buyback committee and delegated its powers to do all such acts in pursuance of the same. The promoter group, including various financial institutions, holds about 80 percent of the equity in these companies and the rest rests with the public. The move to buy back comes in the backdrop of the government calling upon cash-rich public sector undertakings to emulate their private sector peers and buy back shares and consolidate their balance sheets. On Wednesday, NMDC shares closed at ₹90.40, down 1.36 percent, on the BSE, while MOIL shares declined 1.44 percent to ₹239.60