 "Rashmi Saluja")
The compensation offered to Rashmi Saluja, executive chairperson of REL, meets all the legal as well as corporate governance norms, Religare said while denying reports that the company paid a high remuneration of Rs 150 crore to Saluja.
"As per standard corporate governance, exercising of listed stock options by employees requires requisite approvals which spans across several months before the actual sale. The process involves financing from external lenders as well as approvals for pledging financing or revocation and eventual sale. In the said allegation, the entire process started months before the eventual sale of ESOPS on September 21, 2023. The process was undertaken before the meeting on September 20, 2023 .
Religare was reacting to an alllegation that Saluja sold her ESOPs at Rs 270 a share after she was informed informally that an open offer will be made at Rs 235 a share.
A religare official spokesperson said the process for ESOP exercise through financing and sales thereof by Saluja and other 12 employees was set in motion several days prior to the said meeting that happened on September 20 evening.
The share sale proceeds by Saluja was utilized to invest in additional ESOPs of Religare Group entity only.
"Saluja categorically denies the fact that the representative of the Burman family informed her of the proposed open offer during the meeting," the statement said.
The actual sale of shares that happened on 21st and 22nd September by Saluja was made at then prevalent market price.
More From This Section
With regards to compensation of Saluja, as per corporate governance the remuneration of Chairperson and CEO is decided by a special remuneration committee. In this case as well, Saluja’s compensation was decided by the remuneration committee and duly approved by the Board. The compensation was also approved by special resolution passed by the shareholders," a Religare spokesperson said.
"The allegation that the executive chairperson draws a remuneration of more than Rs 150 crore per annum is completely false and erroneous. As per the Annual Report for FY 22-23 of REL, the remuneration for the Executive Chairperson was Rs 8.12 crore. Even after including the perquisites value of the ESOPs, it reached a figure of Rs 42.06 crore, it is worth mentioning that the EC was instrumental in creating value for all the shareholders as the REL share price which saw a low Rs 17 in 2020 has witnessed a high of Rs 280 in September 23. The ESOP perquisite value is also reflective of this significant value creation, a part of which was also shared by her as a shareholder/ employee of the company," the statement said.
