Infosys Gives 23 Lakh Stock Options To 11,000 Eligible Employees: How Will It Work?

By Shreya Bose Last updated Feb 4, 2022

Infosys has approved over 23 lakh stock incentives to certain employees.

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ESOP Plans

The stocks will be granted to employees under its 2015 Incentive Compensation Plan and Expanded Stock Ownership Program 2019.

Its subsidiaries’ employees will also be eligible for the incentives in this round.

ESOP refers to a stock ownership plan which companies grant in order to encourage employees to acquire ownership in the company.

Usually the company offers stocks to certain employees for a negligible amount that remain in the ESOP trust fund.

ESOPs come with a vesting period during which employees can not sell their share.

They are typically offered to key managerial positions but certain other employees have also been made eligible for the benefits.

ESOPs are taxed as a perquisite.

Infosys has approved the grant of 2,307,300 stock incentive units to certain eligible employees.

It will be effective from Feb 1., 2022.

The exercise price will be equal to the par value of shares.

So far, 6,516 employees have been granted 789,600 shares under the 2015 plan.

1,517,700 shares have been granted to 5285 employees under the 2019 plan.

The grant will be subject to achievement of performance parameters each year as defined in the 2019 plan.

Last April it had granted 3,788,260 stock incentive units to some key managerial personnel or KMP and other eligible employees.

The 4 KMP received 213,400 restricted stock units while the other 6 got 106,000 performance stock units.

Beneficiaries include:

CEO and MD Salil Parekh
COO UB Pravin Rao
CFO Nilanjan Roy
Executive Vice President and the Group Head of Human Resource Development Krishnamurthy Shankar
President Mohit Joshi
President Ravi Kumar

Infosys along with TCS, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra will hire a record 1.8 lakh freshers this fiscal.

These firms hired over 80,000 freshers in the same period last year, a momentum they seek to continue in the next year as well.

Companies are continuing to sign deals despite the absence of mega deals (over $500 million in value).

This gives them the confidence to end the year on double-digit growth.

Infosys raised its revenue guidance for the third time to 19.5-20%.

It had started the year with 12-14%.

Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra are dealing with attrition rates of 25.5%, 22.7% and 24%, respectively.

This is pushing them to expand their fresher hiring programs.