| Murthy told senior citizen shareholders, "This is a good suggestion you have made, and certainly the board will consider it", at the company's 24th annual general meeting. |
| "The company's directors have their hearts in the right place, with the underprivileged", he said. Many old people, owning a few shares to several hundred, attended the meeting here and urged the company to split the stock so "more people can afford" to own it. One shareholder, also pointed out, the split would "be a nice way to celebrate your silver jubilee" next year. |
| Murthy, who turns 60 next year, said he will retire as chairman as per the company policy. |
| About the company's cash reserves, V Balakrishnan, a senior vice-president, finance, said the company may consider returning cash to shareholders under certain circumstances, though there was "no concrete proposal," to do so. |
| Balakrishnan said the zero-debt company had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 2,998 crore as at March 31, 2005. "Our policy is that return on capital employed should be at least twice the cost of capital, and return on invested capital should be at least three times the cost of capital". At cost of capital of 14 per cent, "we exceed the norms" he said. |
| Mohandas Pai, chief financial officer, said, "A well known expert on finance and professor of Stern University has shown that in the long run, dividends and bonuses will not seriously impact shareholder value". |
| Infosys also has a policy of not giving out more than a fifth of its profits during the year as dividends, Balakrishnan said. For the year to March 2005, total dividends amounted to 18.8 per cent of profits. |
| Pai, whose appointment as wholetime director for another five years was a fait accompli, defended the company's need to sit on the cashpile. |
| "We are happy to grow organically, though the company is always looking for the right acquisition", he said. |
Explore Business Standard