The board of directors of Infosys Ltd has rushed to wrap up its decision to issue bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 by deciding to send postal ballot notices seeking the nod of the shareholders in electronic form.
The company, which along with its September quarter results, also announced on October 10 interim dividend of Rs 30/share, has fixed October 17 as the record date for dividend payment and the actual payout would be made three days later!
An Infosys announcement posted on the Web site of BSE late on Tuesday (the market is closed on Wednesday because of Assembly polls in Maharashtra) said the postal ballot notice seeking the approval of shareholders for the issue of bonus shares would be sent in electronic form to shareholders on the register of members/ list of beneficial owners as received from NSDL and CDSL as on October 15 (today) if their e-mail address was registered with their depository participant. The notice would be sent to the company's registrar and share transfer agents if the shares were held in physical form.
In case of shareholders whose e-mail address was not registered, a physical copy of the notice would be sent to their address. The record date for the bonus issue will be announced in due course, the statement said.
The action comes as a swift follow-up to the decision of its board of directors on October 10 to issue bonus shares to increase liquidity and to enhance the retail shareholder base. Infy's board on that day also declared an interim dividend of Rs 30 per share. The company has fixed October 17 as the record date for dividend eligibility and the actual payout would be made on October 20.
According to the September quarter shareholding data available with the BSE, the share of the promoters in the company's equity was 15.92 per cent and that of FIIs 42.67 per cent. Domestic Institutional Investors held 14.48 per cent stake and others held 26.93 per cent stake in its equity.
Surprisingly, while the institutional investors have upped their stake in the company, the promoters and others have seen their holding go down in the September quarter compared to March 2014. The promoters' stake has gone down to 15.92 per cent in September from 15.94 per cent in March this year. The share of others, including retail investors, is down from 28.30 per cent in March 2014 to 26.93 per cent in September.
However, FIIs hiked their stake to 42.67 per cent in September 2014 from 42.10 per cent in March and DIIs' equity holding is up at 14.48 per cent in September from 13.66 per cent in March this year.