Infosys shifts its CFO back to India after 6 months

In what could be a clear sign of departure from former CEO Vishal Sikka's US-centric policies, Infosys has shifted its Chief Financial Officer M D Ranganath back to India.

The new development comes in the wake of new CEO and MD Salil Parekh taking charge at India's second largest IT services exporter on January 2.

Ranganath also reported at the company's headquarters in Bengaluru on the same day.

"I have moved back to India. It has been almost two weeks, since Salil took over the charge," Ranganath told DH.  

In July 2017, Ranganath was shifted to the US by Sikka in order to be closer to the then CEO and clients. Sikka was based in the US.

Although the company has not made any public announcement in this regard, DH has learnt that as Parekh would be based in India, so is Ranganath.

As per the sources, it was because of the high client concentration in the US that had compelled Infosys to shift its CFO to the US. Around two-thirds of its total revenues for third quarter ended December 31, 2017, came from the US.

According to company sources, Ranganath would, however, be travelling quite frequently to the US. He is also likely to be inducted into the company's board soon, sources revealed.  

The company  is soon expected to be inducting three more members on its board to take the board strength to 12.  

Currently, the company has nine members in the board, including its Non-Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani, newly appointed CEO and MD Salil Parekh and  COO UB Pravin Rao. It has six independent directors  --  Rupa Kudva, Punita Kumar-Sinha, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, DN Prahlad, D Sundaram and Ravi Venkatesan.

Post his transfer to the US, Ranganath's salary was recaliberated for a fixed pay of Rs 4.44 crore and a variable compensation of up to Rs 3.6 crore, effective July 1, 2017.

According to Infosys' annual report for fiscal year 2016-17, Ranganath received a compensation of Rs 9.24 crore, which included Rs 2.84 crore in fixed pay, Rs 1.80 crore in bonus and incentives and Rs 4.5 crore in performance-based stock incentives in 2016-17.

Nandan Nilkekani was all praise for Ranganath for what he called "smooth buyback process" and also signing of advance pricing agreement (APA).

"I have heard about it (APA) for the first time," Nilekani joked during his media address on Friday.