Narayana Murthy gifts Infosys stocks worth ₹240 cr to 4-month-old grandson

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy has gifted shares worth ₹240 crore to his four-month-old grandson Ekagrah Rohan Murthy, purportedly making the newborn India's youngest millionaire. A stock filing shows Murthy gifted 15,00,000 shares of IT services major to his grandson, which is a 0.04% stake.

Before the transaction, Narayana Murthy held 1,66,45,638 shares, which remained at 1,51,45,638 following it, representing 0.36% equity owned by the Infosys veteran. The mode of the transaction was "off-market".

Narayana Murthy's son Rohan Murthy and daughter-in-law Aparna Krishan became parents in November 2023. The newborn became the third grandchild of Narayana Murthy and his wife and author-philanthropist Sudha Murthy. Their daughter Akshata Murthy is the mother of two daughters.

Murthy founded Infosys in 1981, and the company is, today, a software services global company listed on NYSE in the US and on the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai.

Murthy is often credited with conceptualising and implementing the Global Delivery Model (GDM), making Infosys one of the biggest Indian software companies with more than 3,22,000 employees and a market cap of ₹6,64,003.17 crore.

As per the company, he also introduced the concept of a 24-hour workday to the world. He recently had also advocated for 70-hour work week for India to achieve ambitious economic goals. Currently, Murthy serves on the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, and the United Nations Foundation. He is also a Trustee of the Infosys Science Foundation, which governs the Infosys Prize, an annual award, to honour outstanding achievements of researchers and scientists across six categories.

Sudha Murthy had helped her husband with monetary help worth ₹10,000 to create Infosys in 1981. She headed the Infosys Foundation for over 25 years and retired in December 2021. She is currently a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha.

In other news, Infosys has allotted 55,609 equity shares of face value of ₹5 each after the exercise of the restricted stock units by eligible employees. "55,609 equity shares under the 2015 Incentive Compensation Plan; Consequently, on March 15, 2024, the issued and subscribed share capital of the Company stands increased to ₹20,75,38,48,995/- divided into 4,15,07,69,799 equity shares of face value ₹5/- each," says Infosys.

Net profit of Infosys witnessed a 7.3% year-on-year (YoY) dip to ₹6,106 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2023, compared with ₹6,586 crore in the year-ago period. Consolidated revenue increased 1.3% year-on-year to ₹38,821 crore in the third quarter as against ₹38,318 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

India's second-largest software services company narrowed its revenue growth guidance to 1.5-2% for 2023-24. The operating margin for the IT giant was 20.5% for the quarter ended December, a sequential decline of 70 basis points. The operating margin guidance was kept at 20%-22%. The Infosys stock closed 1.89% down at ₹1,604 on the BSE today.