Stock Sale Is A Reach For Infosys; Idea To Be More Global; Indian outsourcer moves more of its shares onto Nasdaq exchange in U.S.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)(Q & A)

Byline: J. BONASIA

Infosys of Bangalore, India, is working to better establish its brand globally by offering new shares of stock to investors in the U.S. and Japan.

The company is one of the largest India-based outsourcers. It helps companies in the U.S. or elsewhere with business processes and software services. Lower labor costs in places such as India have many U.S. companies turning to offshore outsourcers for more and more work.

Infosys sales rose 45% last year to $1.56 billion. Analysts expect the company's year-over-year quarterly sales growth will be at least 29% for the next four quarters.

In December, holders of shares of Infosys that trade on the National and Bombay stock exchanges in India approved a plan to transfer up to 16 million of those shares for trade on the Nasdaq exchange, as American Depositary Receipts. ADRs are, basically, shares of non-U.S.-based companies traded on U.S. exchanges.

On Thursday, the Infosys Indian shares were priced at $67 each, and they started trading in the U.S. on Tuesday. The total value of about $1 billion makes it the biggest such conversion ever. The price is a 29.5% premium to Monday's closing price in India, and a 2.5% discount to Wednesday's closing price of the Infosys ADRs already traded on Nasdaq.

Infosys is acting as an intermediary between its shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission, says T.V. Mohandas Pai, chief financial officer of Infosys. The shareholders, which include some Infosys employees, will get the proceeds, and Infosys will get a greater foothold in the U.S. market.