It appears that the latest offering of American Depository Shares (ADS) by Infosys Technologies Ltd has not found favour with its retail investors.

According to the Nasdaq-listed company's filing with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US, barring a handful of shareholders, including Jamuna Raghavan, wife of former Infosys co-founder and ex-director N.S. Raghavan, not many retail investors have exercised the option of selling their shares for the 16-million second ADS issue.

Besides Jamuna Raghavan opting to sell 357,216 shares and a group of 13 high net-worth shareholders with less than one percent equity holding individually, other shareholders have not responded to the company's offer notice on May 9. The offer closed on May 19.

Infosys' founder promoters and directors, however, have opted to sell 5.16 million shares collectively, accounting for 32 percent of the total ADS offering.

As a result, the promoters' equity holding in the company will decline to 20.29 percent from the present 22.2 percent after the deposited equity shares are accepted by June 8.

Notifying the details of shares on offer to the SEC, the company disclosed that Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy has opted to sell 1.5 million shares, including optional shares of 190,000 shares, reducing his individual holding to 6.01 percent from 6.58 percent currently.

Based on Monday's closing price of $68.75 for each Infy ADS on the Nasdaq, Murthy will be richer by Rs.4.35 billion ($100 million).

A company spokesperson told here that the management will announce the offer price for each ADS in New York after trading closes on the Nasdaq Wednesday night (Thursday morning IST).

Similarly, Infosys CEO and Managing Director Nandan M. Nilekani has opted to sell 1.08 million shares, including 135,000 optional shares from his 4.57 percent holding. Based on the latest price, he will be able to rake in Rs.3.21 billion ($74 million). Post-issue, his stake will decline marginally to 4.17 percent of the total equity holding.

Likewise, another co-founder and Deputy Managing Director S. Krish Gopalakrishnan has exercised the option to sell 1.04 million shares, which should fetch him Rs.3.08 billion ($71 million).

Another promoter and director K. Dinesh has opted to sell 760,000 shares, which will reduce his personal stake to 2.96 percent from 3.24 percent, but make him richer by Rs.2.27 billion ($52.25 million).

Infosys' fifth promoter and director Shibulal has decided to sell 688,000 shares, reducing his holding to 2.67 percent from 2.92 percent to reap about Rs.2.58 billion ($47.3 million).

Company's CFO and director T.V. Mohandas Pai has exercised the option to sell 19,306 shares and company secretary and vice-president (finance) V. Balakrishnan offered to sell 10,213 shares.

Similarly, institutional investors, including FIs and securities firms, have offered to sell their equity holding to the tune of 11 million shares, constituting around 68 per cent.

Among the major financial institutions and companies, FMR Corporation, which holds over five percent stake, has sold 409,561 shares, reducing its holding to 5.44 percent from 5.59 percent.

Other financial and securities firms, which have over one percent equity stake and decided to sell a portion of their holding are UBS Securities Asia Ltd, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Oppenheimer Funds, Copthall Mauritius Investment Ltd and Deutsche Securities, Mauritius.

According to one analyst, the poor response from the retail shareholders is due to the complication of selling the equity shares to overseas investors through the demat account.

"With the blue chip scrip on the rise in a bullish market, retail investors might have had second thoughts in opting for the ADS offer, unlike last time," the analyst said.

The objective of the second ADS offering is to increase the liquidity of the company's scrip on the Nasdaq.

When listed in the next two-three months, the 16 million new ADSs will enable the IT bellwether to increase its float on the Nasdaq by six percent and 13.9 percent in total.

"Out of 267.8 million shares we have in the secondary market currently, around 21.2 million shares (ADS) are listed on the Nasdaq, constituting 7.9 percent of the total stock.

"This secondary offering, including a greenshoe option, will increase our stock liquidity on the Nasdaq by six percent to 13.9 percent with 16 million additional ADS," according to a company official.

As the offering is from the existing shares listed on the Indian bourses, there are no new shares on offer by the company.

The company has appointed Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS to manage the issue. ABN Amro, Bank of Americal and Nomura are the co-managers.