Infosys investors assured despite executive exits

The domestic institutional investors (DII) of India's second largest IT services firm, Infosys, are assured about the performance of the company, despite a spate of exits of top executive in past three years.

"It is a well-settled company. It is a large institution. Usually, investors don't prefer the companies that have large-scale exodus, but Infosys has an advantage here. Every time they lost good people, they have hired better people. Also, the company has an amazing talent pool," said one of the heads of the DIIs of Infosys.

The DIIs were instrumental in bringing back Nandan Nilekani as the chairman of the company last year.

Infosys has seen departing of 22 top executives from the company in past three, and eight since August 2017, after its former CEO and MD Vishal Sikka made an unceremonious exit from the company.

In past one year, among the eight departures, two -- CFO MD Ranganath and Rajesh K Murthy -- were key management personnel (KMP) for the company.

While Ranganath resigned earlier in August, Murthy, who at the time of exit was company's President for 'Energy, Resources, Utilities, Communications and Services' vertical, resigned in January 2018.

In August 2017, the company's the CEO and MD had resigned from the company after a public spat with company's promoter-founder group led by N R Narayana Murthy.

In past three years, the company saw highest number of exits of senior executives in July 2016, when five of the company's senior executives resigned.

Market advisories have alerted the company over the continued exit of senior executive.

"This high-profile exodus is not a good sign for the company. The attrition rate for Infosys is much higher compared to its competitors and there are many factors that could have influenced these exits. Reasons include: change in company strategy, perceived underperformance of a few leaders and changes in the CEO position itself. The end result of all these exits is that the company leadership has thinned out significantly. And right now, the company needs stability and augmentation in its leadership ranks," Kotak Securities said in a note.