Infosys slumps after founders cash out stock
FOUR founders of leading Indian business consulting and information technology business Infosys have sold $1.1bn (£704m) worth of shares, news of which knocked the company’s shares 4.9 per cent yesterday.
The shares were sold by N.R Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal and K. Dinesh, all of whom are part of a group of engineers who founded the company in 1981.
The sale comes after the company picked its first ever outsider chief executive, Vishal Sikka, back in June.
Prior to the news, Infosys shares had risen 23 per cent since Sikka’s appointment.
As a result of the sale, the combined stake of all the founders and their families fell from nearly eight per cent, to 5.1 per cent.
Despite this fall in combined stake, Murthy insists that his “family has tremendous confidence in the future of Infosys and its leaders”.
Sikka is trying to revive Infosys, once the posterchild of India’s $100bn-plus IT industry which has in recent years struggled to innovate and retain market share.
Some investors said Infosys failed to move up the value-chain due to its risk averse management team which was largely comprised of its founders.