Top Mutual Fund executives see big salary hikes in FY 2019-20

CHENNAI: There was a significant rise in the salaries of CEOs of top mutual fund firms in the country during FY 2019-20. According to an analysis of the data made public by mutual funds, the CEO salary given by top 12 fund houses in terms of assets under management increased in the range of 2-132 per cent in FY 2019-20 from the preceding fiscal. HDFC Mutual Fund’s Milind Barve tops the list of high-paid executives.

Salary disclosed by fund houses for FY 2019-20 was decided in April-May 2019 on the basis of FY 2018-19 profitability, which was at an all-time high for the industry, according to executives. Overall, the past fiscal was a good year for the mutual fund industry barring the month of March, which saw record declines amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Barve, CEO of the second-largest fund house HDFC MF, was given a salary payout of Rs 7.43 crore for the fiscal against Rs 7.23 crore in FY 2018-19. Barve is followed by Nilesh Shah, the top honcho of Kotak MF, who received a pay package of Rs 7.32 crore, 68 per cent higher than Rs 4.35 crore a year ago.

SBI MF gave its CEO Ashwani Bhatia a salary hike of 132 per cent to Rs 51 lakh in FY 2019-20.
ICICI Prudential MF paid Rs 6.98 crore to its managing director Nimesh Shah last fiscal, a hike of 12 per cent from Rs 6.25 crore in FY 2018-19.

Nippon India MF’s CEO Sundeep Sikka got a salary of Rs 6.01 crore, which is a decline of 8 per cent from last fiscal, while the same for A Balasubramanian, CEO at Aditya Birla SunLife MF, was at Rs 5.41 crore, a decrease of 7 per cent.

IDFC MF’s CEO Vishal Kapoor’s pay package rose to Rs 5.12 crore from Rs 5.01 crore, an increase of 2 per cent.Chandresh Nigam, chief executive at Axis MF, got Rs 4.8 crore salary during the period under review as compared to Rs 3.97 crore in FY 2018-19. However, he took home a pay package of Rs 17.67 crore, which included a one-time payout.

UTI MF’s acting CEO Imtaiyazur Rahman took home a salary of Rs 4.48 crore in FY20, 97 per cent jump from Rs 2.27 crore he was paid in FY19.

Robust growth

The increase in salaries of top executives of mutual fund houses in financial year 2019-20 indicates robust business growth.

(With PTI inputs)