Tata Sons CFO Saurabh Agarwal’s pay to rise 35% to Rs 21.45 crore; only Chandrasekaran gets more

Tata Sons CFO Saurabh Agarwal’s current remuneration is Rs 15.85 crore after having taken a minor salary cut. (Image: Shutterstock)

Tata Sons CFO Saurabh Agarwal’s salary will rise 35 percent to Rs 21.45 crore, making him the highest-paid in the group after Executive Chairman N Chandrasekaran, the holding company of the conglomerate said in its annual report.

The company is seeking shareholders’ approval to reappoint Agarwal, Ralph Speth and independent director Harish Manwani on its board at their 103rd annual general meeting on September 14.

The AGM will also consider plans to issue Non-Convertible debentures on a private placement basis. It did not disclose the amount in the annual report but it has separately written to shareholders it planned to raise Rs 40,000 crore. It did not say the purpose of raising this amount.

Agarwal’s current remuneration is Rs 15.85 crore after having taken a minor salary cut. The report did not mention any change in salary for Chandrasekaran, whose remuneration was Rs 58 crore after an 11 percent cut.

Other top-paid Tata executives are TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan at Rs 20.36 crore and Tata Steel MD TV Narendran whose remuneration is up 38% at Rs 15.58. Tata Steel CFO Koushik Chatterjee is also in the coveted above-Rs 10 crore salary bracket. His salary was raised over 20 percent this year. Puneet Chhatwal who heads the Indian Hotels Company Ltd, took a pay cut as the pandemic hit business.

The group’s overall combined market capitalisation in FY21 Increased by 91 percent to Rs 17.80 lakh crore, while the market values of its listed investments rose 84 percent to Rs 10.30 lakh crore.

FY21 consolidated net profit rose 77.68 percent, helped by gains from TCS share buyback. Standalone net profit jumped 142 percent to Rs 6,512 crore from Rs 2,680 crore. Other income was higher at Rs 10,138 crore as compared to Rs 126 crore in FY20. The operational revenue for the group was down 61.8% at Rs 9,060.24 crore for the fiscal.