Infosys promoters opt out of ₹18,000-cr share buyback, retain holdings

Promoters including Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani won't take part in Infosys' Rs 18,000-crore buyback, the company's largest in a decade, citing prior intention

Infosys promoters, including Narayana Murthy and chairman Nandan Nilekani, will not offer their shares in the buyback process announced in September, the IT company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

 

India’s second largest IT services company announced its plan to buyback ₹ 18,000 crore shares, its largest in a decade, at a time when stocks of those firms have been under pressure due to a weak macroeconomic environment and uncertainties arising from tariffs.

 

“Since the promoters and the promoter group of the company have declared their intention to not participate in the buyback, equity shares held by them have not been considered for the purposes of computing the entitlement ratio,” as per the filing.

 

 

The promoters and promoter group, which also include their family members, hold 13.05 per cent or 542 million outstanding shares of the company as on the date of the announcement and at the end of second quarter September 30.

 

Narayana Murthy holds 0.36 and Nilekani 0.98 per cent shares respectively, while Sudha Gopalakrishnan, wife of cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan, is the single-largest promoter shareholder with 2.3 per cent.

 

The Bengaluru-based company will buy back 100 million shares at an average price of ₹ 1,800 per share. That represents 2.41 per cent of the total number of equity shares in the existing total paid-up equity share capital of the company, the country’s second largest IT services provider said.

 

“Effective from financial year 2025, the company expects to continue its policy of returning approximately 85% of the free cash flow cumulatively over a 5-year period through a combination of semi-annual dividends and/or share buyback/ special dividends, subject to applicable laws and requisite approvals,” the filing added.

 

This is the fifth buyback by the company in the last decade. The last one was in 2022, an open market purchase, where its buy back totalled ₹ 9,300 crore at an average price of ₹ 1,850 per share. That time it had bought back 60 million shares.