IT giant HCL Technologies Ltd last year appointed its chief executive officer C. Vijaykumar of Rs 123.13 crore ($16.52 million), the company said in its annual report released over the weekend. This makes Vijayakumar the highest paid Indian CEO among software companies in the country. HCL Tech disclosed that three-fourths of Vijayakumar’s income consisted of long-term gains.
“Mr. C. Vijayakumar did not receive any remuneration from the company, though he received a remuneration of USD 16.52 million (equivalent to Rs.123.13 crore) from HCL Americas Inc., a step-down wholly owned company [Long Term Incentive ( “LTI”) is a subsidiary of the Company,” the company said in its annual report released on Friday.
Vijayakumar took in an annual base salary of $2 million, while he received $2 million in variable pay. The CEO further received 0.02 million in the form of perquisites and other benefits for the year ended 31st March. Noida-based HCL Tech said in its annual report that the LTI of $1.50 million took his total salary to $16.52 million.
The software giant in its report further said that LTI was not included in Vijayakumar’s $4.13 million salary during the year ended March 2021.
“There has been no change in their remuneration during FY 2021-22 except for receipt of USD 12.5 million as LTI (Long Term Incentive) at fixed intervals (at the end of two years) based on achievement of milestones. in) is paid on. / parameters to be decided by the Board,” the annual report mentioned. “Accordingly, the above LTI payment is for two years which ended on March 31, 2021. USD 6.25 million for FY 2019-20 and USD 6.25 million for FY 2020-21, it further said.
If LTI is excluded from Vijayakumar’s remuneration for the year ended March 2020, his compensation of $10.27 million would be slightly lower than that of industry peer Wipro Ltd CEO Thierry Delaporte, who earned $10.5 million. Wipro paid the highest salary to its top boss, while registering the highest revenue growth among IT companies with revenue of $10.3 billion. In FY2011, the Wipro CEO surpassed his peers in the IT industry in terms of salary when he took over as the Indian IT chief in July 2020.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, on the other hand, received a 43 per cent hike in his total compensation to $10.2 million a year in 2021-22, as the company posted revenue of over $16 billion last year. Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) paid compensation of $3.3 million to its chief executive Rajesh Gopinathan, while the company’s revenue rose to $25.7 billion.
According to a survey by Deloitte India published last month, CEO compensation has now exceeded pre-pandemic levels and this was the first survey where the average CEO’s total compensation has crossed the Rs 10 crore mark.
According to the Deloitte India Executive Remuneration Survey of 2022, 51 per cent of salaries for CEOs are “at risk” or variable as pay levels rise.