Eicher Motors MD ousted, pay & post rejected by shareholders

In big move of shareholder activism, Eicher Motor chief Siddhartha Lal’s re-appointment as managing director has been voted down due to a proposed salary hike as per reports. 

ET reports quoting sources that a proposal to increase Siddhartha Lal’s salary by 10% was shot down by shareholders as it was not in line with the revenue growth that the auto company was seeing . The employee salary in the same period has risen merely 1% across the company. 

Siddhartha Lal’s re-appointment as managing director of Eicher Motors Ltd has been voted down by shareholders. Sources told ET that they were basically against a proposal to increase his salary by 10% as it outpaced the company’s revenue and profit growth last year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Siddhartha Lal's proposed salary would have been ₹23.23 crore in FY'22 vs Rs 21 crore the year before. 

A special resolution seeking his re-appointment as Managing Director was clubbed with the proposed pay hike which was rejected by shareholders on August 17 at the AGM as per reports. Lal however continues his post as a board member. 

This is not the first case of shareholders rejecting pay hikes of top ranking executives in India. Just in the auto world shareholders exercised their right to reject salary bumps in the cases of Tata Motors MD and Apollo Tyres founder recently.