Infy co-founders sell 7.5 mn shares

Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal offload equity stocks for Rs 862 cr

Infosys co-founders S Gopalakrishnan and S D Shibulal have offloaded around 7.5 million equity shares in the Bengaluru-based information technology services company, for Rs 862 crore in all.

Gopalakrishnan offered five million shares. Shibulal and his family members offloaded 2.5 mn shares, for which they had appointed Citigroup Global Markets India as sole broker. The sale was at an average price of Rs 1,149.45 a share, went a joint statement from them.

“The founders have served Infosys in various capacities, since its inception in 1981 until October 2014, and made it a professionally run company with a global presence,” went the statement. “The sale has been done to partially monetise their stake, having nurtured the company for more than three decades, for personal reasons, including for the betterment of society through various philanthropic activities.”

As of December 31, 2015, the promoters and promoter group held 13.07 stake in Infosys. Gopalakrishnan and his family members (including wife Sudha and daughter Meghana) held 3.41 per cent in Infosys, with 78,222,868 equity shares.

Shibulal and his family (including wife Kumari, son Shreyas and daughter Shruti) held 45,190,571 shares, 1.97 per cent of Infosys.

After their retirement from Infosys, the two with a former Infosys top executive, Srinath Batni, co-founded Axilor Ventures, which aims at investing in emerging start-ups, apart from incubating those.

Both are also involved in various philanthropic activities, primarily in education and research.

At the end of the day’s trading on Thursday, Infosys’ share price closed at Rs 1,145.95, down 2.76 per cent from Wednesday.