Infosys co-founders NR Narayana Murthy, S Shibulal, Nandan Nilekani and K Dinesh have raised $ 1.1 billion by selling part of their stake in the company in a bulk deal.
A total of 3.26 crore shares, accounting for over 5.5 per cent stake in the company, were sold through multiple deals by Murthy, Nilekani, Dinesh and some of their family members, as well as wife of Shibulal. The shares were sold for entrepreneurship and philanthropic activities. Such kind of share sell has been done time and again by the founders to fund these activities.
The move comes months after all the original founders of the company exited the management and appointed former SAP executive Vishal Sikka as the new CEO. This was the first time that someone other than the co-founders had been appointed as CEO.
The shares were sold to domestic and foreign institutional investors at an average price of Rs 1988.87, which were executed by Deutsche Equities India, according to The Economic Times.
Murthy and family sold 1.2 crore shares for Rs 2386.55 crore and are still left with 2.34 crore shares. Nilekani and his wife Rohini sold 1.2 crore shares for Rs 2386.23 crore and are left with 1.96 crore shares.
Dinesh and family sold 62 lakh shares for Rs 1233.65 crore and still retain 2.25 crore shares. Shibulal’s wife Kumari sold 24 lakh shares for Rs 477.38 crore.
Infosys, which currently commands a market value of about Rs 2.25 lakh crore, was founded by seven engineers, including these four, by pooling together just $ 250 in 1981, while all the promoters together held 15.92 per cent stake at the end of last quarter.
