Sudha sells Infy stake to help Murthy with another start-up

Fri, Nov 6 05:38 AM

More than 28 years after she lent Rs 10,000 to her husband to start what is now the multi-billion dollar Indian IT giant — Infosys Technologies Ltd — Sudha Murty, wife of Infosys founder and chairman N R Narayana Murthy, has sold Rs 430 crore worth of Infosys shares to finance her husband's new Venture Capital Fund.

In a disclosure to the Mumbai stock exchange, Infosys on Thursday evening stated the sale of 20 lakh Infosys shares by Sudha Murty for a value of Rs 430.37 crore.

"N R Narayana Murthy has informed the company that the proceeds of the sale will be used as a corpus for the Venture Capital Fund that is being set up in India by him to assist young entrepreneurs in their businesses, primarily in India,'' Infosys said in a separate statement shared with the media.

Sudha Murthy's sale of her Infosys shares comes close on the heels of the October 23 sale of eight lakh shares by Narayana Murthy to raise about Rs 177 crore for the venture capital fund called Catamaran.

The new venture capital fund "will encourage and support young entrepreneurs having brilliant business ideas", Infosys had stated after Naryana Murthy had sold his shares.

With Thursday's sale, the percentage of Infosys shares held by Sudha Murty fell from 1.62 per cent to 1.27 per cent. Post the sale, Sudha Murty holds 73,14,660 Infosys shares. Narayana Murthy's sale of shares last month had reduced his personal holding in the company from 0.55 per cent to 0.41 per cent.

"N R Narayana Murthy and Sudha N Murty confirmed that they do not have plans for raising further capital for the fund, at present," Infosys said following the Thursday sale by the company chairman's wife. Sudha Murty's disclosure to the BSE was made under Regulation 13(4) of the Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992.

The proportion of Infosys shares held by the Murthy family, including their two children, following the latest sale is 4.5 per cent and valued at around Rs 5,800 crore.

The Murthy children, daughter Akshata and son Rohan, hold 1.41 per cent and 1.39 per cent stake respectively in Infosys.

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