Shares of Infosys tanked 12% on Monday after the company reported a poor performance for the quarter ended on March 31, 2023. Infosys shares closed at Rs 1,259 apiece on NSE on Monday, April 17, 2023.
Infosys was conceived in 1981 in Pune by NR Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, NS Raghavan, S Gopalakrishnan, SD Shibulal, K Dinesh, and Ashok Arora, all former employees of Patni Computer Systems.
Infosys was started with a meagre initial capital of Rs 10,000 and was named Infosys Consultants. NR Narayana Murthy borrowed the sum from his wife Sudha Murthy. The front room of Murthy's home was the company's first office, although the registered office was NS Raghavan's home.
Infosys's first employee was NS Raghavan. NR Narayana Murthy was employee No 4. He took nearly a year to finish his tasks at Patni and then joined his own firm.
Infosys did not have a computer till 1983, because Narayana Murthy could not afford to bring an imported option he liked. It took almost two years to get a computer on their own which was a Data General 32-bit MV8000.
The collapse of the KSA joint venture in 1989 led Infosys to its first crisis, following which, one of the founder-partners Ashok Arora quit. Others had no idea about Arora quitting. That was when Narayana Murthy stepped in. “If you all want to leave, you can. But I am going to stick (with it) and make it,” Murthy told them.
Nandan Nilekani, S Gopalakrishnan, SD Shibulal, K Dinesh, and NS Raghavan decided to stay. Infosys came out of the crisis and flourished, making its founders billionaires.
Infosys made an initial public offer in February 1993 and its shares were listed on the Indian stock exchanges on June 14, 1993. Trading opened with a huge premium of Rs 145 per share, compared to its issue price of Rs 95 per share. In March 1999, it issued 20,70,000 American depositary shares at $34 per ADS.
Infosys touched $100 million in 1999. It also became the first IT company from India to be listed on NASDAQ. The share price of the firm surged to Rs 8,100 by 1999 on NASDAQ, making it the costliest share of the time.
From the issue price of Rs 75 in 1993, Infosys’ share price has rallied more than 1,200% in 30 years. If you had bought 100 shares of Infosys in 1993, your holding would have gone up to 1,02,400 shares now due to bonus issues and stock split over the years.
If you held on to your shares till now, your Rs 10,000 investment would be worth Rs 12.8 crore. Additionally, you would have earned from dividend payouts by the company over the last three decades.
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