The 22nd annual general meeting (AGM) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday was a rather simple affair, with the management assuring shareholders that all is well. Investors and analysts will now be shifting their focus to Infosys whose AGM will be held next Saturday (June 24).
"Nothing has changed on the ground. We continue to recruit people in every market, including the US, which contributes 65 per cent of our revenues," N Chandrasekaran told shareholders at the company's AGM in Mumbai, reported IANS.
On hiring, TCS said it recruited 79,000 globally in 2016-17, including 11,500 in foreign markets and plans to hire 10,000 people in the US this fiscal.
All eyes will now be on Infosys, India's second-largest IT services exporter, particularly in the context of significant developments at the company, including top-level exits a few days ago and indirect references to the company's founders for indulging in activitism.
Sandeep Dadlani, president and head of Americas, quit on Friday, with a message on LinkedIn: "I have decided to pursue my personal interests elsewhere. Next up: An out-of-the world assignment! Stay tuned."
Also read: How Rs 950 invested in Infosys in 1993 IPO is now worth over Rs 50 lakh
On Monday (June 12), the company almost blamed its founders for indulging in "activism" that had the potential to harm its interests. Since most of the noises, so to speak, about the company's management was made by founders N R Narayana Murthy and few others over the past few months on various issues, the inference was obvious.
"Actions of activist shareholders may adversely affect our ability to execute our strategic priorities, and could impact the trading value of our securities," Infosys said in its 20-F document, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
"Responding to actions by activist shareholders can divert the attention of our board of directors, management and our employees and disrupt our operations. Such activities could interfere with our ability to execute our strategic plan," the company added.
The promoters own 29.28 crore shares in the company, of which N R Narayana Murthy, along with his wife and two children (Rohan and Akshata) holds 3.44 percent while Nandan Nilekani has 0.93 percent stake. Other promoters are S Gopalakrishnan (0.94 percent), Dinesh Krishnaswamy (0.74 percent) and S D Shibulal (0.38 percent). The rest of the stake in the category is held by their family members, according to the company's regulatory filing to the BSE.
The company was also in the news about a rumoured stake sale by the founders, triggering a sharp fall in its share price on June 9, though the company was swift to dismiss it.
"This speculation has already been categorically denied by the promoters. The company further reiterates that it has no information on any such development. We would like to appeal to the media not to fuel such speculative stories as they are likely to harm the interests of the company and all its stakeholders," Infosys said.
The company's high-profile institutional investors include:
HDFC Mutual Fund (1.67 percent)
ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund (1.45 percent)
SBI ETF (1.14 percent)
LIC (7.03 percent)
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (1.34 percent)
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (1.38 percent)
Singapore government (2.29 percent)
Foreign insurance companies (11.80 percent)
Earlier, the company hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons, with both Murthy and former CFO T V Mohandas Pai raising the issue of excessive severance pay to Rajiv Bansal, apart from making comments on corporate governance at the company, prompting Infosys to hire law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to review its governance standards.
Pai also raised the question of share buyback as a means of capital allocation.
For the full-year 2016-17, revenues increased 8.3 percent in constant currency terms to $10,208 million and net profit, to $2,140 million. In rupee terms, FY2017 revenues grew 9.7 percent YoY to Rs 68,484 crore and net profit is up 6.4 percent to Rs 14,353 crore. The company has declared a final dividend of Rs 14.75 per equity share.
Hiring also slowed down at the company in 2016-17 even as the company said it will be hiring about 10,000 Americans this fiscal.
