Mumbai: Shareholder advisory firm InGovern has said that a reading of Religare Enterprises’ annual reports shows its chairperson Rashmi Saluja earned “excessive” compensation, and that there were regulatory breaches and non-disclosures by the financial services company in which the Dabur promoter family is seeking to enhance its equity ownership through a mandatory open offer to minority stockholders.
InGovern estimated the value of Saluja’s stock options of Religare and of its subsidiary Care Health Insurance over the past 3-4 years at ₹480 crore.
It alleged that Care stock options were issued to Saluja without the insurance regulator’s approval and without approval from Religare’s shareholders.
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“Stock options were granted to Saluja in her capacity as an executive director/chairperson of Religare and not in her capacity as a non-executive chairperson of Care,” said Care’s independent director Pratap Venugopal, responding to the criticism from the shareholder advisory firm.
He clarified that no permission is required to grant stock options to Saluja, according to insurance rules, since they form part of her remuneration that can be decided by the board of directors.
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Venugopal also stressed that the 15% pool for Care stock options was approved by the board and shareholders of the company.
