Premji, Nadar lose nearly $1.5 billion each as markets crash

Bengaluru: The stock market crash this week has weighed heavily on some of the biggest names in the IT sector, reducing the net worth of their holdings drastically in certain cases.Since last Thursday, $3.2 billion has been wiped off from the promoters’ holdings of companies such as HCL, Wipro and Infosys. If this were to include TCS, which is held by Tata Sons, the loss balloons to $9 billion.HCL’s Shiv Nadar and Wipro’s Azim Premji are the biggest losers in the market rout, with the net worth of their holdings being shaved off by $1.6 billion and $1.4 billion respectively. This is because both hold a sizeable chunk of the companies personally and through various investment arms. Nadar holds about 60 per cent and Premji still controls 74 per cent. The shares of these two companies were the worst affected IT stocks in the last trading week. HCL lost nearly 12 per cent over the week to close at Rs 534 on Friday on the BSE, while Wipro lost 10 per cent to end at Rs 221.IT stocks have fallen sharply despite a depreciation in the rupee against the dollar (which benefits this export industry) because of fears of a global recession arising from the coronavirus epidemic. A recession could make clients of IT services companies cut their technology spends.L&T-controlled Mindtree, and Tech Mahindra also reported sharp falls — 9 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively — but the change in value of promoters’ holdings was relatively negligible. N Krishnakumar, who holds 3.7 per cent in Mindtree, lost $8 million over the past week, dragging the value of his holding to about $80 million.N R Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, and their families, who hold 3.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent of Infosys stock respectively, lost $100 million and $90 million. Murthy’s stake is now valued at $1.5 billion and Nilekani’s $1 billion. Tata Sons, which holds 72 per cent in TCS, saw wealth erode to $75 billion from $81 billion, a week earlier. Other billionaires such as Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Asia’s richest banker Uday Kotak, have also seen their net worth erode this week.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2vilB0u