Uday Kotak drew Rs 1 token salary in FY 22-23, Dipak Gupta got Rs 5.43 cr, shows annual report

Uday Kotak had opted to forego his fixed salary and accepted a token salary of ` 1 for FY 2022-23.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director and CEO, Uday Kotak opted to forego his fixed salary and accepted a token salary of Rs 1 for the financial year 2022-23, the annual report of the bank showed.

Dipak Gupta, Joint Managing Director, got an annual compensation of Rs 5.43 crore, the report showed.  Gupta's total package included a basic salary of Rs 2.74 crore and an annual incentive of Rs 1.18 crore.

Other whole-time directors KVS Manian, Gaurang Shah and Shanti Ekambaram got total packages of Rs 5.3 crore, Rs 5.03 crore and Rs 2.02 crore, respectively.

These amounts exclude gratuity, value of car perquisites under the Income Tax Act, 1961 and perquisites value on ESOPs, according to the report.

Gaurang Shah retired and thus ceased to be a whole-time director and director. Shah's remuneration also includes retirement benefits paid to him.

Also, the annual incentives represent an amount of cash bonus for the previous financial year, paid during the financial year 2022-23, as per the approval of the RBI, the report showed.

In fact, Kotak's top management had taken a 15 percent cut in compensation for the financial year 2020-21 in the wake of Covid-19 while CEO Uday Kotak has personally opted to forego his salary and will take only Re 1 as compensation that year.

Earlier, Uday Kotak, in his letter to shareholders, said that he will continue as a non-executive board member and strategic shareholder after he steps down from the whole-time role, the veteran banker wrote in a letter to shareholders.

"Going forward, I see my role as a non-executive board governance member and a strategic shareholder with a long-term perspective of nurturing a world-class institution," Kotak wrote.

Further, Kotak said it is unusual in today’s world of banking anywhere to have an individual with around 26 percent skin in the game with disproportionate family assets in one stock, emotionally attached to living his dream of making India proud.

Kotak along with relatives and enterprises in which he has beneficial interest holds 25.95 percent of the equity share capital of the bank and 17.26 percent of the paid-up share capital of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited as on March 31, 2023.

In February this year, Bloomberg reported that the board has engaged consulting firm Egon Zehnder to lead a global search for a CEO to replace its billionaire founder Kotak.

Kotak has been leading the bank since its inception as a non-banking financial institution in 1985. It became a commercial lender in 2003. He has a net worth of about $13.4 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.