2.51 CRORE BONUS PAID TO CAIRN INDIA OUTGOING INTERIM CEO FOR FY 2013-14

NEW DELHI: Outgoing interim CEO of Cairn India was paid a bonus of Rs 2.51 crore for 2013-14 but his total compensation was a third of what the firm’s last full time chief executive got.

P Elango, who on May 2 resigned from the post citing “personal reasons”, was paid a salary of about Rs 2 crore and perquisites of Rs 33.56 lakh.

Together with Rs 2.51 crore bonus and performance incentives and Rs 26.33 crore in retirement benefits, his total compensation in 2013-14 came to Rs 5.11 crore, according to the company’s latest annual report.

Besides, he also got stock options of 46,758 shares during the year.

He was appointed interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Anil Agarwal-Group acquired company in August 2012 when the company’s face Rahul Dhir quit four years ahead of his tenure.

Elango was appointed whole time Director on Cairn board on January 21, 2013 but was never made the full-time CEO of the company. For the period he was on board in 2012-13, Elango got Rs 37.68 lakh as compensation, Cairn’s 2012-13 annual report said.

In comparison, Dhir got Rs 14.25 crore including a bonus of Rs 3 crore, in 2011-12. His total compensation in the year before that was Rs 12.3 crore and in 2009-10 was Rs 13.56 crore, according to the firm’s previous year annual reports.

Dhir, who was CEO till August 31, 2012, got Rs 17.07 crore in compensation for the period he was on company board in 2012-13 fiscal. His compensation included Rs 16.97 crore he got from the firm’s erstwhile promoter Cairn Energy plc.

In all the previous years Dhir was CEO, the Scottish explorer paid most of the salary compensation he drew, according to Cairn India’s annual reports.

Sudhir Mathur, Cairn’s chief financial officer, has been appointed interim CEO in place of Elango.

Elango was the second CEO to quit the firm since mining billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group announced plan to acquire Cairn India in August 2010.

Since then, Rick Bott, who was Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Cairn India, quit the firm on June 15, 2011, while its Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Indrajit Banerjee resigned with effect from August 23, 2011.

David Ginger, Cairn India’s director of exploration and new ventures, quit the firm shortly after. Company’s Director, Commercial and New Business Ajay Gupta quit the firm in January 2013.

In February this year, Sundeep Bhandari, the man credited with laying the foundation and then building what is now Cairn India, quit the company. He along with Dhir, Bott, Banerjee and Ginger ran the firm before Vedanta took over.

Vedanta completed the $8.67 billion acquisition of Cairn India in December 2011.

Mathur came in from Aircel after Dhir quit.

Courtesy:Agencies (PTI)