Shares of Religare Enterprises (REL) slipped 1 percent to Rs 226 per share on November 21 as investors booked profit post the stock's upsurge on November 20 (up 5 percent). On November 20, the company refuted allegations against chairperson Rashmi Saluja of receiving excessive remuneration and denied any malicious intent of her share sale.
The statement came within days of proxy advisory firm InGovern Research alleging Saluja of receiving excessive remuneration. The advisory firm accused Saluja of receiving over Rs 480 crore in options valuations from REL and its subsidiary Care Healthcare Insurance over the past 3-4 years.
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However, REL completely denied such claims. “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,” they said.
Additionally, REL refuted claims that Saluja sold her sales before the proposed open offer. “The sale of shares by Rashmi Saluja was a part of liquidating her employee stock option plans (ESOPs) along with 12 other employees of REL. This process of liquidation of ESOPs through financing and sale was set in motion several days before said meeting that happened on September 20, 2023,” the company clarified.
Earlier, the Burmans of Dabur, REL’s largest shareholders, accused Saluja that she liquidated her stake before the proposed open offer as one of the representatives of the Burman family informed her during the meeting on September 20.
Also read: Dabur's Burman family seeks probe in sale of share by Religare Chairperson, Religare denies charges
Religare Enterprises, however, denied these claims, saying that the actual sale of shares happened on September 21 and September 22 at the prevalent market price. And, the share sale proceeds by Saluja were utilised to further invest in ESOPs of Religare Group entity only.
Religare Enterprises is the holding company for four key businesses such as SME Finance via Religare Finvest (RFL), health insurance via Care Health Insurance (CHIL), retail broking through Religare Broking (RBL) and affordable housing via Religare Housing Development Finance Corporation (RHDFCL).
REL is engaged in a battle with the Burmans – promoters of Dabur and REL’s largest shareholder (around 26 percent stake in REL). The Burman family had hiked its stake in Religare to 26 percent after which market regulator Sebi mandates to make an open offer to acquire another 25 percent stake in the financial services company.
Though the Burman family had proposed an open offer to buy additional share of REL at Rs 235 apiece, amounting to total consideration of up to Rs 2,115 crore cash, Religare objected to the open offer as it believed the company was worth more than what Burman family offered and sought an independent valuation report.
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