Infosys' 39th annual general meeting (AGM) saw 1,771 shareholders log in virtually from across the country on Saturday. While technical glitches and audio/video issues remained a challenge, the meeting saw the Infosys management fielding questions from shareholders on a range of issues.
On the top of everyone's mind was the business impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, but several shareholders also sought the management's views on the H1B suspension in the United States, the rising border tensions with China, the effectiveness of remote working of Infosys employees, and several other issues.
In fact, one question by a shareholder was on why Infosys does not create a product that can be a “competitor to TikTok.”
Infosys’ Chief Operating Officer (COO) Pravin Rao replied cooly saying the company will “consider” it.
“Good suggestion. We continuously look at business opportunities and getting into new areas. We will definitely consider this,” Rao said.
Here's a look at the top shareholder concerns from the Infosys AGM:
The question almost every shareholder asked the company's management was about the impact on Infosys as well as clients, and when they expect to see recovery.
Infosys’ management said that the impact on business during the first quarter of the fiscal was lower than the company had anticipated in April.
Infosys had refrained from giving guidance on revenue growth for FY21 in April, citing uncertainties due to the COVID crisis.
“Business impact due to deal closures and longer decision cycles has been less compared to what we had envisaged in April,” CEO Salil Parekh said.
“Many economies are opening up. We are not seeing large-scale cancellations,” he added.
“The challenge for the industry is the uncertainty of the situation, since there is no clear sense of when recovery will start. A second wave will be a risk if there are more lockdowns,” the Infosys CEO said.
On H1B Visa suspension:
Infosys said the company is evaluating the changes brought in by the Donald Trump administration this week, wherein it has suspended H1B and several other non-immigrant visas till the end of the year.
“We are constantly monitoring the development regarding immigration rules,” Rao said.
“Infosys has a strong localization strategy. In the last 24 months, we have recruited more than 10,000 US nationals or permanent residents,” he added.
Rao also added that 60 percent of Infosys’ employees in the US are now “visa independent”.
On border tensions with China:
Shareholders asked if the ongoing border tensions with China could play any role in impacting Infosys’ business, given the company works with several clients in the neighbouring country.
Infosys said there was no impact so far but said there were concerns around the rising tensions.
“We have clients in China largely serviced by local employees based in China. We are deeply concerned with the escalation in geopolitical tensions,” Rao said.
“We have not seen any disruption in operations. We will comply with government directives in all the countries we operate in,” he added.
On Remote Working:
With 95 percent of Infosys’ employees working from home, shareholders sought to know the impact on productivity.
“Currently, 95 percent of the workforce is working from home. At the peak, we had 97 percent working from home,” Rao said.
“We have not seen client escalations or SLA misses due to employees working from home,” he said, adding that the company was not in a hurry to get employees back to work from office.
“We envisage a hybrid model in the long term. It will depend on the nature of project and client comfort,” Rao said.
On whistleblower allegations:
The whistleblower allegations expectedly came up during the AGM, though chairman Nilekani reiterated that the matter is “closed”.
“We dealt with the whistleblower complaint matter as per our whistleblower policy. In March, the company received a notification that SEC has concluded its investigation,” Nilekani said, adding that a class action lawsuit against the company has been voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.
“We can confidently say that the matter is closed and whistleblower allegations are dismissed,” Nilekani said.
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