HCL Deluxe Ltd has obtained clearance from the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US for issuing dollar-denominated stock options to its employees. The company is a 50:50 joint venture between the Rs 2,400-crore HCL group and the $1.9-billion Deluxe Corporation.
"We received clearance from SEC a few weeks ago. We will soon be filing our dollar stock option proposal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its approval," HCL Deluxe's chief executive officer Ravindra Bahl told Business Standard. "We expect the dollar stock option scheme to be finalised in about four weeks time," he added.
The SEC clearance allows HCL Deluxe to issue stock options to its employees up to 10 per cent of the total equity of the company. The remaining 90 per cent will be held by the HCL group and Deluxe Corporation.
"Our objective is to make the stock option available to as many employees as possible. We would like to see about 60 to 70 per cent of our employees covered by the plan," he said.
Among other possibilities, HCL Deluxe is also considering a listing in a US stock exchange. "But it is much too premature to take a decision now,'' he said. This is in line with the group's policy of using stock options as a tool to retain talent. At present, about 25 per cent of the 7,000 HCL group employees are covered through stock options.
"In three to four years time, the objective is to ensure that 80 per cent of HCL executives are brought into stock option plans,'' HCL vice-president Arun Dang said. "Whatever is the annual cost of an employee to HCL, the stock option aims to create the same wealth for the employee in three years time," Dang said. The group is also working on incorporating the concept of `sweat equity' into its talent-retention programme. The group is yet to draw up a concrete proposal in this regard.
