Government-owned gas distribution company GAIL Ltd on Friday announced a buyback plan of 6.97 crore equity shares with a face value of Rs 10 each representing 1.55 per cent of the total number of fully paid-up equity shares.

The company’s board of directors fixed at a price of Rs 150 per share for an aggregate consideration of Rs 1,046.35 crore. GAIL’s board also approved an interim dividend for FY2020-21 at Rs 2.50 per unit on the paid-up equity share capital. The record date for dividend as well as for the purpose of share buyback has been fixed at January 28, the company said in a statement.

The government has asked about eight state-owned companies to consider share buybacks as it looks for ways of raising funds to rein in the burgeoning fiscal deficit.

GAIL is India’s leading natural gas company with diversified interests across the natural gas value chain of trading, transmission, LPG production and transmission, LNG re-gasification, petrochemicals, and city gas.

It owns and operates a network of around 12,500 km of high-pressure trunk pipelines.