Infosys’ co-founders sell 32.6m shares worth Rs 6,484 cr
Tribune News Service
Bangalore, December 8
IT major Infosys’ three co-founders, including Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and their family members and wife of another co-founder SD Shibulal, today announced as having sold 32.6 million shares of the company for approximately Rs 6,484 crore.
The news resulted in fall in the share prices of the company by about 5% on the BSE. Even TCS and Wipro, competitors of Infosys, were affected by the development as shares of TCS tumbled 2.5% and that of Wipro came down by 1.62%.
Murthy, who is universally regarded as having played the most important role in scripting the success story of Infosys, has to reassure the investors by issuing a statement.
“Our family has sold a minor part of our stake to continue various activities, including our efforts to encourage entrepreneurship and our philanthropic efforts. These are activities that I expect to be busy with during the next phase of my life. Even after this sale, our family continues to be the largest shareholder among retail shareholders. We have tremendous confidence in the future of Infosys and its leaders”, Murthy said.
Explaining the reason for sale of shares by the Infosys co-founders and their families, Deutsche Equities India Pvt Ltd, the sole broker of the sale said, “The sale has been done to partially monetise their (founders’) stake, after more than three decades of nurturing the company, for personal reasons, including for the betterment of society through various philanthropic activities”.
Besides Murthy and Nilekani, the other co-founder who was involved in the sale of shares is K Dinesh. Kumari Shibulal, wife of co-founder SD Shibulal, also figured in the transaction.
S Gopalakrishnan, the only remaining co-founder who was actively involved in running the company till Vishal Sikka took over as the CEO and MD of Infosys in June this year, has refrained from joining his peers in the latest sale of shares.
The shares were sold to both foreign and Indian institutional investors at an average price of Rs 1,988.87 each.
Narayana Murthy and family sold 12 million shares (23.3% of their holding). Nandan Nilekani and family, too, sold 12 million shares (31.3% of their holding). Dinesh and family sold 6.2 million shares (21.5% of their holding) while Kumari Shibulal sold 2.4 million shares (9.6% of their holding).
According to sources, the sale reduces the combined stake of all the founders and their families in Infosys to 5.1% from nearly 8%.
Though considered somewhat laggard and averse to taking risks, of late Infosys has improved its performance. Its shares have been up 21.4% since the beginning of the year and up 8.9% in the past two months.
