Infosys defends ex-CFO severance pay; says wasn't 'hush money'

Moneycontrol BureauInfosys Chairman R Seshayee took the stage on Monday to clear the air over alleged differences between the IT company's board and its founders. He asserted that there was no "battle" between the board and the promoters of Infosys. Denying any conflict of interest, Seshasayee stressed that there was a convergence instead. "There is no conflict of interest (between the board and the founders), there is only a convergence," said Seshasayee.The Infosys Chairman minced no words when he said that the suspicion that former CFO Rajiv Bansal was paid a hefty severance pay as "hush money" is "disturbing".
"The concerns raised over CFO Rajiv Bansal's severance pay are valid.... But they said it was hush money, which was deeply disturbing," said Seshasayee.

Infosys had earlier agreed to a Rs 17.3 crore severance pay but after reviewing company practices it was decided that only Rs 5 crore be given as payout to Bansal, said Seshasayee. Infosys had employed an external independent agency to review company practices, he said.Also, the payout given to General Counsel David Kennedy upon his was done as per his contract with the company, he added.

Responding to media reports in the past few days, Seshasayee said Chief Executive Vishal Sikka's compensation was raised to USD 11 million only after the 98 percent of shareholders approved the proposal through a postal ballot. In October 2016, the country’s second-largest IT firm had linked Sikka’s compensation to its aim of becoming a USD 20 billion company by 2021. He further said that there was a longivity linked component of his variable package that was for the stability of the tech giant. Another component, was performance linked, that was relying on very high targets, he said.In the two and half years that Sikka has been at the helm, the company’s revenues have grown from USD 8.2 billion to USD 10 billion on a LTM (last 12 months) basis, while attrition has come down from 24.2 percent to below 15 percent. Margins, too, have held on despite the challenging environment.Seshasayee also defended the appointment of DN Prahlad and Punita Sinha on Infosys board. Prahlad is well qualified to be on the board as he knows Infosys's business very well, the Chairman said.