Raking in the moolah: CEO earnings up in tandem with profits of companies

JSW Steel chief Sajjan Jindal top-earning CEO in FY22 with Rs 134.8 crore, up 83.7%

Mirroring the increase in the earnings of their companies, the chief executives and promoters of India’s top listed firms gained handsomely from the boom last financial year. Their remuneration includes salaries, perquisites or perks, and profit-linked commissions.

There was a jump in profit-linked commissions for chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief experience officers (CXOs) in sectors such as metals and mining, other commodities, information technology, and pharma. However, the salaries do not include employee stock ownership. 

The analysis is based on a sample of 329 companies on the BSE500 index that have published their annual reports for FY22.

Commodity producers and IT services exporters dominate the list. Four of the top 10 are the chief executives of India’s top IT services exporters while two are promoters of commodity companies. Five stayed on the list of top 10 for the second consecutive year.

JSW Steel chief Sajjan Jindal came on top with Rs 134.8 crore, up 83.7 per cent from Rs 73.4 crore a year earlier. In comparison, JSW Steel’s net profit was up 161.2 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 20,665 crore in FY22.

HCL Technologies Managing Director (MD) and CEO C Vijayakumar came next. He earned Rs 123.1 crore in FY22, up more than 300 per cent from Rs 30.6 crore in FY21. In FY21, Vijaykumar didn’t receive any salary from HCL Technologies but got $4.13 million as remuneration from HCL America Inc, a wholly-owned step-down subsidiary of the company.

This makes Vijaykumar the highest-paid CEO in the IT industry, ahead of the chief executives of industry leaders such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys. HCL Tech’s consolidated net profit was up 21.1 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 13,499 crore in FY22.

Divi’s Laboratories’ promoter, chairman, and MD, Murali K Divi, came third with Rs 110.4 crore in FY22, up 36.6 per cent from Rs 80.8 crore in FY21. Divi was the second-biggest earner in FY21.

He was followed by Pawan Munjal of the two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp. He took home Rs 84.4 crore, a decline of 3 per cent from Rs 86.9 crore a year earlier. Hero MotoCorp’s net profit was down 20.6 per cent Y-o-Y in FY22. Munjal was the top-earning CEO in FY21.

Wipro’s MD and CEO, Thierry Delaporte, got fifth place with Rs 79.8 crore, up 24 per cent from Rs 64.4 crore a year earlier. Delaporte was among the top 10 earners in FY21 as well. The company’s net profit was up 13.3 per cent Y-o-Y in FY22.

Infosys MD and CEO Salil A Parekh was next on the list with Rs 71 crore, up 43 per cent from Rs 49.7 crore in FY21. Infosys’ net profit was up 14.3 per cent in FY22. Parekh was among the top earners in FY21 as well.

Other CEOs on the list in FY22 were Tech Mahindra’s CP Gurnani (Rs 62.7 crore, up 335.5 per cent), Larsen & Toubro’s S N Subrahmanyan (Rs 61.3 crore, up 115 per cent), Trident’s Rajinder Gupta (Rs 57.7 crore, up 167.7 per cent), and Divi’s Laboratories’ N Ramana (Rs 56.3 crore, up 35.6 per cent).

Together the top 10 took home Rs 841.4 crore in FY22, an increase of 71.1 per cent from Rs 491.7 crore a year earlier. The combined net profits of their companies increased 26.2 per cent to Rs 88,850 crore in FY22.