Premji to Sell 35 Million Wipro Shares to Fund Education

The Wipro founder Azim Premji will sell 35 million shares valued at Rs 1,530 crore ($300 million) to fund educational activities of Azim Premji Foundation, which also runs a private university in the Indian tech hub of Bangalore.

In a regulatory notification, the trust said the amount raised through the sale of shares would be used to scale up the foundation's activities to improve the quality and equity in school education.

Premji, who still holds 79 percent of the Wipro's equity stock, transferred 213 million shares, then valued at Rs 8,846 crore (Rs 88.46 billion) to the Trust in December 2010, which accounted for 8.7 percent of the company's total shares.

The endowment will also use a part of the fund to scale up the university's programs focused on research and teaching in education.