The shareholders of Infosys Technologies approved on Saturday the sponsored American Depository Receipts issue of the company in the range of two million to three million shares.

The sponsored ADR issue, which is equivalent to 4 million to 6 million ADRs, was approved at an extraordinary general meeting held in Bangalore.

"We believe the ADR conversion will make Infosys stock have more liquidity and make it to one of the mainstream stock in the United States. We believe our stock would be covered by mainstream analysts and held by well-known long term players," Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy told shareholders through a video-conference from Germany.

Murthy is leading a CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) business delegation that is visiting Germany.

Infosys CEO and managing director Nandan Nilekani told reporters that the pricing of the ADRs would be determined by the lead underwriters at a later date.

Infosys chief financial officer T V Mohandas Pai said 4.2 million Infosys shares were being traded on Nasdaq and the sponsored ADRs would increase the floating stock to 100 to 150 per cent.

Infosys officials said Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Saloman Smiths Barney had been selected as merchant bankers for the sponsored ADRs.

Currently, 40 per cent of Infosys global stocks were held by foreign institutional investors, Pai said.

Nilekani said the shareholder approval was required as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines for sponsored ADRs.

He said Infosys had filed with the Securities Exchanges Commission in the US for approval of the issue. "Based on the SEC approval, we will go with an offer to the shareholder at an appropriate time," he said.

Declining to specify a time-frame for the offer, Nilekani said market conditions would play a role in making the offer to potential investors in the US.