Internet services provider Sify Ltd plans to seek shareholder approval to convert 3.6 to 4.6 million shares into American Depository Shares, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

A spokesman for the Nasdaq-listed Sify told Reuters that the company was seeking an enabling resolution to convert up to 10 per cent of its shares into ADSs, but it did not have a time frame for the issue.

The shareholders' annual general meeting will be held on June 23.

Sify's ADSs, each of which represents one underlying share with a face value of Rs 10, closed on Monday at $5.45. They have more than doubled in value since the start of 2003.

The Chennai-based company's 'sponsored' ADS issue will give holders of the underlying equity shares such as India's fourth largest software services exporter, Satyam Computer Services Ltd, an opportunity to sell their shares in ADS market.

Satyam Computer holds a 35 per cent stake in Sify and has been looking to sell all or a part of its stake.

Satyam's chief financial officer, V Srinivas, said that the company was yet to decide whether it would offer its shares through this route.

Other large shareholders in Sify include Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund Investor, VentureTech and the Government of Singapore.

India's second largest software services exporter, Infosys Technologies, also plans to sponsor an ADS issue by converting up to three million domestic shares to improve the liquidity of its Nasdaq-listed shares.