Have a heartfelt, warm relationship with Narayana Murthy: Vishal Sikka

BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka said he has a ‘heartfelt’ and ‘warm’ relationship with founder Narayana Murthy and that he has an ‘amazing’ relationship with the rest of the IT company’s founders in his keynote address at an investor conference.

After the keynote about ten international fund managers went into a separate meeting room with CEO Sikka and four other senior management executives. Foreign portfolio investors own over 39% of Infosys.

The GIC, formerly known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation was one of the funds in the room. It is also one of Infosys’ top five institutional investors. OppenheimerFunds another large institutional investor has already come out and publicly backed the management saying the board should ‘contain interventions from non-executive promoters.’

Sikka met the domestic fund managers in a separate meeting.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company is in the middle of a firefight between the founders and the existing board members about lapses in corporate governance. ET has reported that the $200 million paid for its Panaya acquisition and the questions that raised are at the centre of the disputes.

“I have a heartfelt and warm relationship with Narayana Murthy. I have not met Nandan in over a year but I met Kris on a Lufthansa flight. I have an amazing relationship with the founders,” Sikka said. He dismissed media reports of governance issues as distractions.

In an explosive interview to ET on Thursday, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy questioned the Rs 17.38 crore severance payout made to Bansal, saying “such payments raise doubts whether the company is using such payments as hush money to hide something.”

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