Institutional Voting: Top Management Pay At Asian Paints, Balkrishna Industries In Focus

BloombergQuint is tracking institutional investor votes this proxy season—especially the proposals they vote against.

Asian Paints Ltd.'s employee stock option plan for 2021, that would've granted employee stock options to Chief Executive and Managing Director Amit Syngle, saw half of the institutional votes being cast against it.

About 55.9% of the institutional votes at its June 29 annual general meeting were against the proposal to vest stock options with Syngle, data collated by the Institutional Investors' Advisory Services Ltd. showed. Votes were cast on 80.9% of the shares that institutions own. They hold 27.46% stake in Asian Paints.

Still, the plan was passed with an 82.8% overall majority.

Under the 2021 ESOP plan, Asian Paints will give Syngle stock options that would be worth up to 0.75% of the net profit in the given financial year. The value of the stock options would not exceed 35% of the total remuneration payable to Syngle, according to the company's AGM notice.

BloombergQuint has reached out to Asian Paints for a comment. The story will be updated with their response.

Reappointment Of Balkrishna Chairman And Managing Director

Elsewhere at Balkrishna Industries Ltd., majority of the institutional votes cast were against a proposal to reappoint Chairperson and Managing Director Arvind Poddar for five years, and fix his pay.

About 63.1% of the institutional votes at its June 30 AGM were against Poddar's reappointment, according to the IiAS data. Institutions own 33.48% stake in the company. Of these, votes were polled for 83.9% of the shares.

This proposal, too, passed muster with 79.5% of the overall votes being in favour.

Poddar will be reappointed as MD effective from from Aug. 1, 2021 to July 31, 2026. He would receive a basic salary of Rs 3 crore per annum and a commission of up to 2.5% of the company's annual net profit, according to the AGM notice.

IiAS said Poddar's compensation would be at around 623 times the median remuneration.

Company Secretary Vipul Shah told BloombergQuint that Balkrishna Tyres is the only firm of its nature in the off-highway tyres space and hence isn't comparable to other listed peers. Shah claimed the company has one of the highest operating margins among global tyremakers and one of the highest return ratios. Besides, he said the company has been gaining market share globally.

"Therefore, the management salary being highest is justified in our view and is in line with regulatory caps," Shah said.