Premji’s trust to sell shares worth 1.5k cr

Bangalore: The Azim Premji Trust will sell up to 3.5 crore shares of Wipro through the stock market auction route on Wednesday at a price which will be announced on Tuesday. The proceeds will be used by the Azim Premji Foundation, which runs a number of non-profit initiatives, especially in education. At Monday's closing price of Rs 437.15, the sale could generate around Rs 1,530 crore. 

    Wipro chairman Azim Premji had in December 2010 transferred 21.3 crore shares in Wipro (or about 8.7% of Wipro's total outstanding shares) to the trust to be used for the foundation. The total value of the shares then was Rs 8,846 crore, compared to its current value of about Rs 9,300 crore. Wipro's founders hold close to 79% in the company. The trust's share sale will reduce this by about 1.4 percentage points.