Infosys promoters including Murthy & Nilekani offer Rs 2,038 Cr

[Sudhakar]

Infosys promoters including Murthy & Nilekani offer Rs 2,038 Cr

Infosys promoters, including co-founders NR Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, have offered to sell as many as 1.77 crore shares, worth up to Rs 2,038 crore, in the company's Rs 13,000 crore buyback offer.
The promoter group - which includes most of the founders and their families - had earlier expressed their intention to be part of the company's first buyback plan in its over three-decade history and have offered to tender a maximum of 1.77 crore shares.

At a buyback price of Rs 1,150 per share, this could mean a windfall of Rs 2,038.94 crore for the promoter group, if all the shares tendered by them are accepted in the buyback offer.

The founders and families - classified as promoters group - held 29.28 crore shares, or 12.75% stake in Infosys at the end of June 2017.

Infosys' buyback offer of up to 11.3 crore shares comes at an almost 25% premium over Friday's closing price of Rs 920.10 a share. The record date is expected to be on or after October 25, 2017.

The Bengaluru-based firm has been in the eye of a storm over the past few months, with founders and erstwhile board members clashing over allegations such as corporate governance lapses and irregularities in Infosys' $200-million Panaya acquisition.

The public spat culminated in the sudden resignation of the then CEO Vishal Sikka and exit of four board members, including Chairman R Seshasayee. They blamed Murthy's "misguided campaign" for Sikka's abrupt exit.

On August 24, Infosys named co-founder Nandan Nilekani as its new non-executive Chairman, bowing to the demands of co-founders and large institutional investors.

However, the tensions between the two camps do not seem to be subsiding as Seshasayee launched another offensive last week against the alleged "personal attacks" by Murthy.

The two key players in Infosys' changing narrative - Nilekani and Murthy along with families - have offered to tender maximum number of shares in the buyback.

Nilekani, along with family, has offered to tender 58 lakh shares while Murthy, along with wife Sudha and two children, has offered to tender 54 lakh shares. S Gopalakrishnan and family have also offered 22 lakh shares while K Dinesh has offered 29 lakh.

Sudha Gopalakrishnan, wife of S Gopalakrishnan, currently holds the largest share in individual capacity among promoters group members with 2.14% shareholding. SD Shibulal will not participate in the buyback, but his wife and son have offered to sell over 14 lakh shares.

Source : https://www.techgig.com/tech-news/Infosys-promoters-including-Murthy-Nilekani-offer-Rs-2-038-Cr-124737