Infy promoters sell stake worth over Rs 2,000 cr in 2004-05

Market analysts say the bullish trend in the stock market could have prompted some of the promoters to sell the stock and book the profits. The total number of shares held by promoters has declined from 7.06 crore shares to 5.88 crore shares as on March 31, 2005.

As per the annual report, the promoter holding has fallen from 26.52 per cent (on March 31, 2004) to 21.76 per cent this fiscal. This could have further declined after the company’s sponsored ADS listing in May 2005. Most of the promoters, including Murthy and Nilekani, had surrendered part of their holding in the recent ADS issue worth $1 billion.

More significantly, the public holding in the company has risen to 19 per cent in the current fiscal from 13.95 per cent last fiscal. FII holding also moved up marginally from 41.82 per cent to 42.87 percent.

Meanwhile, Nilekani told reporters that the company is looking for diversified geographic revenues from its ventures including BPO and consulting enterprise services.

The dollar-rupee price variation was an issue that the company and industry has to live with, he said, adding one had to remain ahead on the roductivity front to deal with the challenge of exchange rate volatility. “Along with this, the company has to deal external pressure points like outsourcing backlash, supply of people etc,” he said. Emphasising on the significant volume of BPO business of the company’s software clients, Nilekani said there should be a synergy between the firm’s core services (IT) and peripheral (BPO) services. However, he maintained that the IT major’s BPO business was growing at a faster rate.