IT majors trust PSU banks more for their Rs 20k cr cash

Global economic crisis and Satyam fiasco may have hit the Indian IT sector hard, but the four leading software exporters -- TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech -- are sitting on a cash pile of over four billion dollars, majority of which they have moved to public sector banks.

Probably, after the concerns emanating from Satyam founder and the then Chairman B Ramalinga Raju's disclosure about cooking up books for several years, most of the IT companies have started disclosing the whereabouts of their cash reserves.

Together, the four leading IT firms have about Rs 20,000 crore of cash and equivalents as on December 31, 2008.

Infosys has the highest cash among peers in its books which stands at Rs 9,686 crore, mainly as deposits with domestic banks. It is followed by Wipro with Rs 5,855 crore, TCS with Rs 2,163 crore and HCL Technologies at Rs 2,033 crore ($416.1 million).

Also, Infosys has parked its largest chunk of reserves with State Bank of India (Rs 2,000 crore). Besides, it has close to Rs 1,000 crore with HDFC and about Rs 260 crore with HDFC bank.

"About 67 per cent of our portfolio is kept in nationalised banks in India," Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan said.

The disclosure by Infosys shows a clear migration of deposits from Indian private sector banks such as Axis Bank, ICICI Banks and HDFC to public sector banks.

A total of over Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 250 from Axis Bank, Rs 990 crore from ICICI bank, Rs 190 from HDFC bank) has been withdrawn from private sector banks.

The country's top software exporter TCS also has cash and fund investments to the tune of about Rs 2,163 crore, even after the acquisition of Citi Global Services.