Nandan Nilekani (62), former CEO of Infosys, is “undecided” on whether to accept the promoters plea to join the Board to ease the current stand-off between the management and co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, V. Balakrishnan, a former Board member and ex-CFO, said on Thursday.
“Earlier we had approached him,” said Mr. Balakrishnan said in a phone interview. “He had expressed his doubts and said he was undecided. It will be good if he says yes. We need a global face to pull the company up and restore confidence of investors and shareholders.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Murthy postponed an investors’ call on reasons of “ïll health,” his spokesperson said. Domestic advisory firms and domestic investors said the move was to buy time to propose Mr. Nilekani to the Board.
Mr. Murthy, who has been in the eye of the storm since Vishal Sikka’s resignation on August 18 and being charged by the Infosys Board of having triggered the ex-CEO’s abrupt exit, now plans to address investors on August 29.
“We want the current Board to be reconstituted,” Mr. Balakrishnan said. “These are early stages and I would not know of the outcome. There are too many rumours floating around.”
Infosys on Thursday denied reports of its Board offering to resign . “We will not be making any comments on speculation and rumours,” according to an Infosys statement. “The company does not have any further updates to share at this point of time.”
The Infosys Board had alleged that Mr. Murthy (71) had repeatedly made inappropriate demands which, they said, were inconsistent with his stated desire for stronger governance. Markets’ regulator SEBI on Tuesday said it was keeping a close watch on Infosys’s share price movement after the stock fell for two straight sessions in the wake of Mr. Sikka’s resignation.
“Mr. Murthy has not met any of the Board members until now,” Mr. Balakrishnan said. “There are too many things happening now.”
The shares tumbled by almost 10% on August 18, wiping out ₹22,519 crore from its market valuation, and fell further by more than 5% on August 21 as investors ignored the company’s ₹13,000 crore buyback decision amid fears that the stand-off between Mr. Murthy and the Board could potentially erode customer confidence and hurt Infosys as a brand.
With institutional investors, including mutual funds and the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) holding sizeable stakes in the company, an analyst at a domestic brokerage, who did not wish to be identified had said the large investors could play a crucial role in resolving the current crisis.
LIC owns 7.03% stake with a total 11.01% held by insurance companies. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. holds 1.33%. Overseas depositories own 16.69%.
Foreign investors such as Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund (2.16%), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (1.32%), Government of Singapore (2.11%) and Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (1.02%) hold together 37.53% of the stock of Infosys.
Published - August 24, 2017 02:22 pm IST
