Meet V Vaidyanathan, who gifted 9 lakh equity shares to his staff

V Vaidyanathan, who has made headlines for gifting 9,00,000 equity shares of IDFC Bank to his staff, is often seen making headlines – for similar donations. The recent gifting of 3 lakh shares to his trainer Ramesh Raju and 2 lakh shares each to househelp Pranjal Narvekar and driver Algarsamy C Munapar, and 1 lakh shares each to office support staff Deepak Pathare and Santosh Jogale has made heads turn.

Vaidyanathan, IDFC First Bank MD and CEO, gave away the shares to his staff in order to enable them to purchase houses. The bank clarified in an exchange that the recipients do not have any personal relationships and are not related to Vaidyanathan in any manner. 

For ones who are thinking this is unprecedented – it is not. Vaidyanathan is well-known for gifting his shares often. For instance, in May last year, Vaidyanathan donated 4.5 lakh shares of the bank amounting to Rs 2.34 crore to three individuals M Selvaraj, Alexia Selvaraj and Utkarsha Todankar as a gift to buy houses. They all received 1.5 lakh shares each. 

Before that in 2020, Vaidyanathan had gifted his school teacher 1,00,000 fully paid-up equity shares amounting to Rs 30 lakh. The regulatory filing said that the gift to his teacher Gurdial Saroop Saini was a token of gratitude for the teacher’s help at an earlier stage in life. 

In 2018, Vaidyanathan, who was then the Chairman and founder of Capital First, gifted 4.29 lakh shares worth Rs 20 crore. Out of that, 11,000 shares went to 23 of his colleagues and three former colleagues, and 6,500 shares each to five personal staff including his driver and house staff. Moreover, 1.10 lakh shares were also given to his close family members and relatives. 

The company had said then that the gift is a token of gratitude to those who brought them there. The statement added that Capital First had access to neither debt nor equity in 2010. In 2012-13, the economic environment was disturbed and interest rates were rising. “Under such circumstances, people joined him, leaving well-paying jobs, worked hard, conceptualised strategies, introduced many innovations and discovered new lines of business,” the statement mentioned. Three of the giftees are no longer in the company “but their contribution cannot be forgotten,” he said.

Who is V Vaidyanathan?

Vaidyanathan is the first Managing Director and CEO of IDFC First Bank, which was formed after the merger of Capital First and IDFC Bank in December 2018. 

An alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School, Vaidyanathan has over two decades of experience in the sector. He worked with Citibank Consumer Banking from 1990-2000, before setting up retail banking from 2000 to 2009, and scaled up its branch network. At the age of 38 in 2006, Vaidyanathan was appointed to the board of ICICI Bank. In 2009, he was named the MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

He quit ICICI Bank in 2010 in order to acquire an NBFC to convert it to a bank aimed at consumer and MSME lending. When he acquired equity stakes, he used the platform to build MSME and consumer financing businesses, according to the IDFC First website. By 2018, the loan book had grown from a start-up stage to Rs 29,600 crore, and increased the market cap 10 times. Capital First grew at a 5-year CAGR of loan growth of 30 per cent , and 55 per cent in PAT between 2013-2018.

In order to secure a commercial banking licence, Vaidyanathan agreed to merge Capital First and IDFC Bank in 2018. 

Vaidyanathan has received multiple awards during his career, including ‘Most Inspirational Leveraged Management Buyout, India 2018’ from CFI Awards, ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2017, ‘Transformational Leader 2018’ from CFI Awards UK, and ‘Outstanding contribution to Financial Inclusion, India, 2017’ from Capital Finance International, London. The company was included in ‘India's Most Valuable Companies 2016 & 2015’ by Business Today, and ‘India's Top 500 Companies & Corporates 2016 & 2015’ by Dun & Bradstreet. Vaidyanathan was also named in the ‘Leaders under 40’ list by Business Today in 2009. 

Also read: IDFC First Bank MD V Vaidyanathan gifts 9 lakh shares to staff to buy house