Mohandas Pai, K Dinesh resign from Infosys

Infosys scrips plunged on the stock exchanges Friday following a double-whammy announcement by the company relating to the resignation of two top directors and a lower-than-expected quarterly profit.

T.V. Mohandas Pai, member of the board and director in-charge of the human resources department, announced he was resigning from the company. Similarly, K. Dinesh, co-founder and director, will retire by rotation at the annual general meeting to be held on June 11, and will not seek re-appointment.

And adding to the churn, N.R. Narayan Murthy, the founder and chairman, will also retire in August, leaving a vacuum at the top of India's second-largest software exporter.

The Infosys scrip was down by more than eight per cent around 1 pm on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the company announced the resignations and came out with its quarterly results. The company reported a 14 per cent rise in consolidated net profit (of Rs.1,818 crore) for the fourth-quarter ended March 31, 2011, which was lower than market expectations.

Revenue for the fourth-quarter rose by 22 per cent to Rs.7,250 crore. Total revenues for fiscal 2011 was up at Rs.27,501 crore (as against Rs.22,742 crore in the previous fiscal). Net profit for the year rose to Rs.6,823 crore (Rs.6,219 crore in the previous year).

''We expect the demand environment to be normal this year for the industry,'' said S. Gopalakrishnan, CEO and managing director, Infosys. ''We have created a structure with strong customer driven vertical focus and have enhanced our investment to take advantage of the opportunities we see in the market.''