Infosys' Salil Parekh 2nd highest-paid CEO at ₹66.25 cr in FY24

Infosys chief executive officer (CEO) Salil Parekh received total remuneration worth ₹66.25 crore in the financial year 2023-24, according to the company's annual report. Parekh had earned annual compensation worth ₹56.4 crore in FY23.

With this payout, Parekh becomes the second-highest-paid CEO in India's IT sector after Wipro's former CEO Thiery Delaporte's annual compensation worth ₹167 crore in FY24.

Parekh's total payout in FY24 includes a total fixed salary worth ₹7.47 crore and bonus incentives worth ₹19.75 crore. His perquisites on account of stock options exercised stood at ₹39.03 crore, taking his total salary to ₹66.25 crore.

Nandan M. Nilekani, non-executive and non-independent director, Infosys, voluntarily chose not to receive any remuneration for his services rendered to the company.

Among the independent directors, Michael Gibbs received the highest payout at ₹3.07 crore, followed by D Sundaram at ₹2.79 crore and Chitra Nayak at ₹2.69 crore.

The former chief executive of Wipro took home a pay package of $20,111,105 (₹167 crore) in FY2023-24. Delaporte's annual compensation included salary and allowances worth $3,900,827, variable pay worth $5,061,908, long-term compensation worth $4,313,874, and other income worth $6,834,496.

At over $20 million, Delaporte remains the highest-paid CEO in the Indian IT industry for the second consecutive year. According to Wipro, “Reconciling Items” for FY2024 includes ₹92.1 crore towards employee costs related to the outgoing CEO".

Delaporte had resigned as the CEO and MD of the company on April 6, 2024. He was relieved from his employment on May 31, 2024. The company says its newly appointed CEO and MD Srini Pallia will get up to $6 million (over ₹50 crore) in annual salary in FY25. Pallia was appointed the CEO and MD on April 6, 2024.

Additionally, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO and MD, K Krithivasan, took home annual remuneration worth ₹25.36 crore in the financial year 2023-24.

Net profit of Infosys Ltd rose 30% year-on-year to ₹7,969 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, compared with ₹6,128 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue of India's second-largest software services provider rose 1.3% to ₹37,923 crore in the fourth quarter as against ₹37,441 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Infosys declared a final dividend of ₹20 per equity share and a special dividend of ₹8 per share. Infosys reported a drop in staff headcount for the fifth straight quarter. The software major ended FY24 with 317,240 employees compared with 322,663 at the end of December 2023 and 343,234 at the end of March 2023.

Infosys’ free cash flow was strong at $2.8 billion, an increase of 13.7% over FY23. Large deal TCV for FY24 was the highest ever at $17.7 billion, with 52% being net new.

Shares of tech giant Infosys closed 0.02% down at ₹1,405.90 on the BSE today.