Infosys CEO Parekh gets 88% jump in salary
New Delhi, May 26: Infosys CEO Salil Parekh has got a massive 88 per cent jump in annual remuneration to Rs 79.75 crore, making him one of the highest-paid executives in the country. The software services firm has sought shareholders' approval for the reappointment of Parekh as chief executive officer and managing director for a second five-year term beginning July 1.
According to the company's annual report released on Thursday, Parekh, 58, took home a salary of Rs 71.02 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. This included Rs 52.33 crore from exercising RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) granted to him earlier.
Infosys co-founder and chairman Nandan Nilekani voluntarily chose not to receive any remuneration for his services to the company.
In the shareholder notice, the firm justified the fat hike citing industry-leading growth in recent years.
"Salil's proposed total target remuneration visa-vis the remuneration most recently paid to CEOs of the peers (based on publicly available information as analysed by the company's external advisors Egon Zehnder) would be around the median," it said.
The peers used for the analysis are Accenture plc, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, DXC Technology Company, Tata Consultancy Services,
Wipro Limited, Tech Mahindra, Capgemini, HCL Technologies, IBM, and Atos SE.
TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan's annual salary stands at Rs 25.76 crore, while Wipro's Paris-based CEO has a pay of Rs 64.34 crore. HCL Tech CEO has a package of Rs 32.21 crore while Tech Mahindra CEO earns Rs 22 crore.
Infosys has raised
the fixed cash compensation paid to Parekh from Rs 6.50 crore per annum to Rs 8 crore. The annual grant of RSUs covering the company's equity shares remains almost unchanged at Rs 3 crore.
He will get Rs 34.75 crore as a performance equity grant, up from Rs 13 crore. Variable cash compensation has also been increased from Rs 9.75 crore to Rs 17 crore. The rest of the remuneration are in form of RSUs.
"The company's compensation philosophy is to ensure alignment of executive compensation with shareholder value. Accordingly, almost 97 per cent of the increase in Salil's proposed annual remuneration is linked to performance," Infosys said.
Under the revised remuneration, Salil's fixed compensation (fixed pay and time-based RSUs) shall constitute less than 15 per cent of this total compensation at target (compared to 23 per cent under his current terms).
"Additionally, 70 per cent of Salil's performance-based compensation is given in the form of RSU or PSU grants, and therefore is predicated on the performance of the company's share price," it said.
He will be granted 2.21 lakh PSUs (Rs 34.75 crore) for the fiscal 2023 performance, which is a similar number to the 2.17 lakh (adjusted for bonus shares) PSUs (Rs 13 crore) that was granted in his first year of appointment.