Azim Premji gifts Wipro shares worth ₹500 crore to sons Rishad, Tariq

Wipro founder chair Azim Premji has given a little over 10 million shares, worth about ₹500 crore, as gift to his two sons, Rishad and Tariq, according to data from the stock exchanges.

Azim Premji, 78, owned 22,58,08,537 shares, or 4.32%, in Wipro until last week. On 20 January, Premji gave 51,15,090 shares, each, to elder son Rishad, who is the chairman of Wipro, and to Tariq, who works at Azim Premji Foundation.

Wipro shares ended at ₹484.9 on Friday, implying that the 1,0230,180 shares were valued at ₹496 crore.

Also read: Vedanta shares gain ahead of Q3 results today. Buy, hold or book profit?

Post the transaction, the Premji family members together own 4.43% shares in Wipro, including Premji owning 4.12%, his wife, Yasmeen owning 0.05% and the two sons, each owning 0.13%.

The promoters owned 72.9% of Wipro at the end of December last year. As part of the promoter group, three partnership firms—Hasham Traders, Prazim Traders and Zash Traders—together own 58%; Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives and Azim Premji Trust hold 0.27% and 10.18%, respectively. The remaining 0.03% is held by Hasham Investment and Trading Co.

Also read: Nifty 50, Sensex fall about 1% each; experts point out these 3 reasons

The Premji family gets monetary benefits, such as dividends and share buybacks, from about 3% of the 68.6% promoter shares while the economic benefits of the remaining 65.6% shares go to the eponymous foundation, Azim Premji Foundation.

Put simply: Premji family gets dividend income from 7.4% of shares despite his family owning 72.9% of Wipro.

Often known to be frugal in his spending and austere in his lifestyle, Azim Premji donated two-thirds of his wealth worth $21 billion in 2019 to charitable causes. This included the dividend incomes from two-thirds of shares held by the family to Wipro and the entire gains from his family office, Premji Invest.

For now, Premji’s wealth would total about $11.3 billion, including $1.3 billion of shares in Wipro and $10 billion worth of Wipro Enterprises Ltd. Privately-held Wipro Enterprises, which includes Wipro Consumer business and Wipro Engineering business, conducted a valuation exercise last year as it bought shares from a handful of minority investors.

On January 25, Wipro share price was trading at ₹471.5, down ₹6.50 or 1.36%. The Wipro share price hit an intraday high of ₹479.35 and an intraday low of ₹470.70.also