[Divyanshu Sharma is a 3rd Year BA LLB (Hons.) student at National Law University, Delhi] The debate regarding the disparity in director remuneration between professional and promoter-group directors has been reignited in a recent study conducted by Institutional Investor Advisory Services. The study has unearthed numerous instances wherein the remuneration granted to promoter CEOs in India is 50...
Compensation Arrangements between Private Equity and Company Management: Corporate Governance Issues
In its board meeting held on 23 October 2016, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) highlighted the issue of compensation arrangements agreed to by private equity (“PE”) firms with the promoters, directors and key managerial personnel (collectively, the “management”) of investee companies that are listed on the stock exchange, and certain corporate governance issues that emerged...
The Companies Law Committee on Section 117 and Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel
[The following guest post is contributed by Amitabh Robin Singh, who is an Associate at DSK Legal] In an earlier post, this author had discussed the proposed changes made by the Companies Law Committee (“Committee”) to Chapter 3 (Prospectus and Allotment of Securities) of the Companies Act, 2013 (“2013 Act”). In this post, a particular observation of the Committee, which stretches between...
Designing Executive Compensation for Banks and Financial Institutions
When it comes to banks and financial institutions, there are additional corporate governance requirements apart from those applicable to other types of companies. This is because the operation of banks and financial institutions affect the interests of a constituency other than shareholders, namely deposit holders and other creditors. Hence, executive compensation practices need to take these...
Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance
Although the issue of executive compensation has not been as dominant in the corporate governance discourse in India as it has been in other leading economies, it has begun to attract significant attention lately. While we have not had a chance on this Blog to touch upon the recent debates, it would be useful to refer our readers to a couple of posts (here and here) by Professor Balasubramanian...
Shareholder Power: Say-on-Pay
Recent Developments in the US: Dodd Frank Act, section 951, requires companies to approach shareholders for their non-binding vote on executive compensation and golden parachutes. Recent Developments in the UK: A new proposal would require companies to approach their shareholders for a binding vote on executive pay. Existing Position in India: Managerial remuneration has been historically...
Regulating the Pay of Bankers in the Private Sector
Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued compensation guidelines for implementation by private sector and foreign banks that become operational from the financial year 2012-2013. This approach is consistent with the trend that corporate governance norms in the banking sector tend to be more controlled than in other industry sectors. Apart from the fact that the pay of CEOs and wholetime...
Managerial Remuneration in Unlisted Companies: Process Eased
When the rest of the world is tightening the screws on payment of managerial remuneration in the wake of the financial crisis, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in India has eased the process for such payments in the case of unlisted companies. However, this is certainly understandable. The erstwhile process of requiring even unlisted public companies to approach the MCA for payment of...
Regulating Bankers’ Pay
Consistent with international trends to impose greater regulation on executive compensation in banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued draft guidelines on compensation of whole time directors/ chief executive officers / risk takers and control function staff. This applies to private sector and local area banks and all foreign banks operating in India, and is in addition to tight...
‘Sweat Equity’ vs. ‘Sweet Equity’ – a Legal Perspective
(In the following post, Rohan Bagai analyzes the regulations relating to ‘sweat equity’ under Indian company law in the light of recent events surrounding the Indian Premier League. Rohan is a corporate lawyer at one of the leading law firms in India. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from New York University School of Law (NYU), New York with a specialization in corporate laws) The recent...
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