Infosys continues to hog the limelight for all the wrong reasons. A whistle blower, claiming to be close to former CFO Rajiv Bansal, had written to select media outlets in addition to regulators Sebi and US SEC on how the overpriced acquisition of Israeli firm Panaya was opposed by Bansal.
Read: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka to meet global investors
Infosys had announced the acquisition on February 16, 2015 for an enterprise value of $200 million, much higher than its purported value of $162 million by one of the firm's investors, Israeli Growth Partners. But something sensational happened a day earlier.
"The Board of Infosys blindly approved the deal. The CFO of Infosys at that point of time, Rajiv Bansal, refused to sign off on the deal and, in fact, walked out of the discussion during the board meeting to approve this deal," the anonymous email claimed, referring to the board meeting that took place on February 15, 2015, the Mint reported.
The acquisition was defended by the Infosys top management at a press conference as recently as on February 13, 2017.
"...Rajiv (Bansal) was the certifying officer and he has certified the accounts. The Panaya acquisition was done through a process. We have got Duetsche Bank valuation done, which is third-party valuation and within the band of the valuation that they gave the prices determined," R Seshasayee, the non-executive chairman of Infosys, said at the conference.
Bansal quit in October 2015 but his exit triggered a controversy over another issue, his severance pay of Rs 17.38 crore (equalling 24 months of pay). Mohandas Pai, one of the company's former HR head, questioned it. "As far as I know, no CFO in India has got a 24-month separation. There is no case for a special treatment for anybody," the former Infosys board member said.
Earlier, former co-founder of Infosys, N R Narayana Murthy, had claimed in a television interview that he had received 1,800 emails raising concerns over various issues at the second-largest Indian IT services exporter.
Infosys shares were trading flat at Rs 999 on the BSE at around 1.55 pm on Monday.
