HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri took home Rs 55.87 crore in FY19

The country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Aditya Puri took home Rs 55.87 crore in the financial year 2018-19. Puri's total earnings, including stock options, rose by almost 36 per cent as compared to Rs 41.06 crore in the previous year.

According to bank's annual report, Puri's compensation included a fixed salary component of Rs 10.73 crore, perquisites worth Rs 2.26 crore and Rs 0.67 crore as provident fund and tax exempted portion of superannuation - all of which added to the remuneration of Rs 13.67 crore. During the year, Puri exercised employee stock options (ESOP) worth Rs 42.20 crore, bringing his total earnings to Rs 55.87 crore.

In FY18, Puri, the longest-serving head of any private bank in the country, received a salary of Rs 7.26 crore, Rs 0.56 crore as a superannuation fund, while his perquisites worth stood at Rs 1.82 crore. Adding to it, he exercised ESOP worth Rs 31.41 crore.

"The remuneration includes basic salary, allowances, performance bonus, cash allowances in lieu of perquisites or taxable value of perquisites, if availed as computed as per Income-tax rules but excludes gratuity, PF settlement, super annuation settlement, perquisite on ESOP and superannuation perquisite," the report said.

On the year-on-year basis, his salary, perquisites, superannuation fund and ESOP worth increased by 47.78 per cent, 24.72 per cent, 19.67 per cent and 34.35 per cent each from FY18.

Meanwhile, Deputy Managing Director of the bank Paresh Sukthankar earned a total remuneration of Rs 6.33 crore (excluding ESOP) in FY19 as compared to Rs 5.30 crore in the year-ago period. Sukthankar resigned on November 8, 2018, after having worked with the bank for 24 years since its inception in 1994.

Also Read: HDFC Bank profit jumps 20.5% to Rs 21,078.14 crore in FY19, board recommends dividend of Rs 15 per share

The Executive Director Kaizad Bharucha was paid Rs 5.88 crore (excluding ESOP) versus Rs 4.34 crore in the last fiscal.  

The Mumbai-headquartered bank said the average remuneration of employees in FY19 was 10.31 per cent, barring front line sales staff. As of March 31, 2019, the number of permanent employees on the rolls of the bank was 98,061.

Last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved re-appointment of Aditya Puri as MD and CEO of the bank for another two years to October 26, 2020 (i.e. till the date of his attaining age of 70 years). Puri has been associated with the bank since 1994, during which the bank went through two major mergers - the merger of Times Bank Limited and Centurion Bank of Punjab Limited with HDFC Bank.

As of March 31, 2019, Aditya Puri holds 0.14 per cent of the paid-up share capital of the bank.

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Under Puri's regime, HDFC Bank became the largest lender and even the most valued. At a time when rivals had a troublesome run, HDFC Bank clocked a profit growth of 20.5 per cent at Rs 21,078.14 crore during the financial year 2018-19 as compared to Rs 17,486.75 crore in 2017-18. The bank's Net Interest Income (NII), the difference between the total interest earned and interest expended by a bank, rose by 20.32 per cent to Rs 48,243.22 crore in FY19.

On asset front, bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at 1.36 per cent of gross advances by March 31, 2019, as compared to 1.30 per cent on March 31, 2018. The HDFC Bank also announced a dividend of Rs 15 per equity share for the year ended March 31, 2019.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar