Indian Businessman Azim Premji in the worlds richest list

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Feb 21, 2000

The share price of Wipro Ltd, the infotech major from India is on the rise and the boss Premji who own major part of the equity is on the worlds richest list. A news paper report put him at third, after Gates and Buffet. Past 25 trading sessions saw the share price of Wipro flare up by more than 200 per cent - from Rs 2,700 in January to Rs 8,911on 18 February.

Wipro's market capitalisation touched $46 billion with the stock price at Rs 8,911 (for Rs 2 paid-up share) and Azim Premji's 75 per cent stake in the company is worth over $35 billion. The Forbes 1999 ranking had Bill Gates with $90 billion at the first place followed by legendary investor Warren Buffett ($36bn) and Paul Allen ($30bn). The US stock prices have also moved up since then, the latest figures on the richest are not available.

International fund mangers are reported to have shown interest in the company making the stock with little floating stock go up to the present level. Fund managers from Capital International, Morgan Stanley, Schroders, Alliance Capital and Picktet have been supporting the share. Other put the sharp rise in share price to the technical factors mainly the low floating stock of around ten to fifteen percent. Some feel one key reason for the flare-up in Wipro's share price is the stock's inclusion in the Morgan Stanley's MSCI (Morgan Stanley-Capital International) Emerging Market India Index a week ago.

The company has above 2,200 of its staff members with assets valued at Rs 1 million according to an estimate few months back. The figure will have gone up for sure at the current share value and there are employees who are millionaires in dollar terms too. In October 1999 Wipro introduced a new ESOP (employee stock option plan) and the stock price rose above 300 per cent after that.

Wipro in January entered into a strategic deal with Microsoft Corporation as a partner for outsourcing software development and testing in India. As a result the company will collaborate to enhance the capabilities around Microsoft's Windows 2000, Windows CE and Internet applications. As per the agreement, Microsoft will outsource software development and test projects to Wipro. Based on the specifications, Wipro will determine the size and composition of the development teams. Wipro's global R&D division focuses on providing engineering and research and development services to IT equipment vendors addressing the computers, networking , telecom and consumer electronic markets.

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