Thomas Cook Thursday said it has received board approval for a buyback of up to 26 million fully paid up shares at a price of Rs.

57.50 apiece for a maximum aggregate amount of Rs 150 crore.

The buyback price is at a premium of 40% over the closing market price on Feb 25 the statement said.

The buyback record date has been fixed as March 7, 2020 and the transaction will be entirely funded by internal accruals.

"The perceived negative impact of the Corona Virus on travel businesses, has affected the company’s share price and hence, the buy-back signals to shareholders the management’s confidence in the strong fundamentals and growth prospects of the company,"the travel company said in a statement. The process will help the company return cash to its shareholders enhancing the overall return for them.

It involves a reservation of up to 15% of the equity shares for small shareholders which would benefit "a significant number" of them.

“The buy-back scheme is primarily intended to increase shareholder value as the income arising to the shareholder on account of buy-back of shares is exempt from tax," said chairman Madhavan Menon. "The combined impact of a sluggish economy and difficult trading conditions due to the prolonged direct impact of the Corona Virus, have resulted in slowing demand across our businesses.

Given that this coincides with the peak booking season for the summer vacations, we anticipate a cascading negative impact on our results," he added.