Religare rejects allegations against chairperson Rashmi Saluja

New Delhi: Religare Enterprises has rejected allegations against chairperson Rashmi Saluja of receiving excessive remuneration.

Religare’s statement comes a few days after proxy advisory firm In Govern Research alleged that Saluja received excessive remuneration.

InGovern accused Saluja of receiving over Rs 480 crore in options valuations from REL and its subsidiary Care Healthcare Insurance.

“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 employee stock option plans (ESOPs), it reached a figure of Rs 42.06 crore,” Religare said.

InGovern said given the recent media reports on the open offer by Burman family and the subsequent stiff resistance by management of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) to the acquisition, it merited investigation on reasons thereof. Also, independent directors of REL wrote to SEBI claiming irregularities in entities controlled by the Burmans and raising concerns over Burmans being fit to take over the control of REL.

A reading of annual reports of REL and its key subsidiaries shows the large, vested interest that Rashmi Saluja, the Executive Chair of REL, has due to excessive remuneration as well as regulatory breaches and non-disclosures by REL.

In the past 3-4 years, total valuation of options of REL and of Care Health Insurance Limited (CARE), a subsidiary of REL, issued to Saluja is over Rs 480 crore. This is in addition to compensation paid at REL, InGovern said.