No excessive remuneration paid to chairperson, says Religare

NEW DELHI: Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) on Monday refuted the allegations levelled against its chairman Rashmi Saluja with regard to excessive remuneration, terming those ‘’completely false and erroneous.’’

The statement comes within days of proxy advisory firm InGovern Research alleging Saluja was paid excessive remuneration.

Religare said the performance-linked remuneration was paid to Saluja after approval of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC), Board and the shareholders of REL.

‘’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 FY22-23 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,’’ Religare said in a statement.

It further said Saluja was reappointed as executive chairperson in February 2023 for a second term for a five-year period through a resolution by the Board and approval of shareholders.

Saluja was instrumental in creating value for all the shareholders of REL. The share price of REL, which saw a low of Rs 17 in 2020, rose to a high of Rs 280 in September 2023, it said.

‘’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,’’ Religare added.

Currently, Religare management is engaged in a tussle with the Burman family-promoters of FMCG major Dabur India.

Burman family which has hiked its stake in Religare through creeping acquisition to around 26 per cent, is now proposing to make an open offer for acquiring another 25 per cent stake in the financial services company.