Promoters of three major tech firms together gain Rs 20,000 cr in 3 yrs; Azim Premji leads with Rs 10,115 cr earnings

Promoters of three major technology firms including Azim Premji of Wipro together gained about Rs 20,000 crore in the past three years through equity dividends and share buybacks, said a media report. Among individual promoters, Premji leads with cash earnings of Rs 10,115 crore through equity dividends and share buybacks. The Wipro founder is followed by Anil Agarwal of Vedanta (Rs 9,159 crore), Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies (Rs 6,492 crore) and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (Rs 4,503 crore), said a report by the Business Standard.The share buybacks accounted for 56.5 percent of the tech firm promoters’ cash earnings during the three-year period, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_29971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Azim Premji. Reuters[/caption] Meanwhile, though Premji emerged as the cash-rich promoter in the country, he is the second richest Indian after Mukesh Ambani adding $2 billion to his wealth at $21 billion, according to a Forbes magazine survey in October 2018. Ambani is the richest Indian for the 11th consecutive year with a net worth of $47.3 billion. Nadar with a net of $14.6 billion made it to the list of the top ten business tycoons of the country in the survey. In December 2017, Premji Trust along with other promoter entities, had sold its 2.73 percent stake for more than Rs 5,700 crore in a share buyback offer. The Azim Premji Trust along with nine other promoter entities, who were persons acting in concert (PAC), offloaded a little over 179.6 million shares during the share buyback that closed on 13 December. A total of 3.437 million shares were brought back under the repurchase offer with a total amount of Rs 11,000 crore being utilised. In August 2018, Premji, the second richest Indian, invested about Rs 400 crore in Gold Plus Glass Industry Ltd, a domestic float glass manufacturer, through his investment arm Premji Invest to fund its expansion plans. Agarwal’s family trust had in July 2018 made a firm $1-billion offer to buy 33.47 percent non-promoter shares of Vedanta Resources in a deal that values the conglomerate at $3.07 billion. Nadar’s HCL Technologies had in December 2018 announced the acquisition of select IBM software products for $1.8 billion (over Rs 12,700 crore) in an all-cash deal. This was the biggest acquisition for HCL Tech till date, and among the largest by an Indian tech company. With inputs from agencies ( Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost.)