Biggies sell

Forget year-end bonuses. India Inc’s professionals have capitalised on the market boom to make some serious money in the last quarter of 2007. With the market at record levels, several big shots encashed crores by selling part of their stock options in the last three months. While several of them pulled out a few lakhs, some big shots including Vineet Nayyar of Tech Mahindra, HDFC’s Deepak Parekh and Renu Karnad, AM Naik and VK Magapu of L&T and PB Kashyap of Ambuja Cement have grossed crores in the run-up to the new year.

The biggest gainer was Tech Mahindra MD Vineet Nayyar, who encashed Rs 23 crore last week. The head of the outsourcing firm which went public in 2006 is still sitting on a neat pile. Given the outstanding shares in his name, Mr Nayyar currently owns Tech Mahindra shares worth a little over Rs 140 crore, which would place him among the best compensated chief executives in the country.

Among other well-known names, HDFC's Deepak Parekh and Renu Karnad sold shares worth Rs 9.3 crore each in mid-December. They had earlier sold shares worth about Rs 5 crore each in late September. And that’s not all. The current value of the shares that Ms Karnad holds adds up to Rs 45.45 crore or more than $11 million, while that of Mr Parekh stands at Rs 60 crore or about $15 million.

Some of the other board members of HDFC also encashed a part of their holdings. For instance, SB Patel has encashed about Rs 1.38 crore at the fag end of October, while NM Munjee, an independent director in HDFC and currently chairman of Development Credit Bank, encashed about Rs 92 lakh through multiple transactions over the last eight weeks.

It's not just the service sector companies whose top execs have hit bull’s eye. Take engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which has been facing succession issues. The company, which had to extend the retirement age of its top management, including its chairman and managing director, has created quite a few millionaires.

L&T chairman and managing director AM Naik sold shares worth Rs 8.6 crore between end of October and early November. Among others, whole-time director VK Magapu encashed Rs 8.5 crore while RN Mukhija and KV Ramaswami pulled out approximately Rs 87 lakh and Rs 84 lakh respectively.

The top shots of L&T are still sitting on big money, given the value of their unsold shares. For instance, Mr Naik’s existing L&T shares are worth Rs 420.4 crore or a whopping $105 million, while whole-time director RN Mukhija’s shares are worth Rs 168.55 crore.

Ambuja Cements also proved to be a gold mine for its top executives. For instance, whole-time director PB Kulkarni encashed close to Rs 1.46 crore through multiple transactions since mid November. Among others Ambuja Cements MD AL Kapur sold shares worth Rs 65 lakh and BL Taparia, another whole-time director, encashed Ambuja Cements shares worth about Rs 90 lakh, as per recent disclosures to the stock exchange.

Among other companies, ITC directors SSH Rehman and Anup Singh sold shares worth Rs 1.68 crore and 1.15 crore respectively over the last two months alone. They had been regularly selling their shares for the last few months.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel’s company secretary Vijay Sampath pulled out Rs 46 lakh about five weeks back while Matrix Labs COO S Srinivasan encashed shares worth Rs 41 lakh.

The party is not limited to execs at India-listed companies. The top management of Nasdaq-listed BPO ExlService Holdings, too, made hay while the stock traded at levels of $22-25 for the last few months.

While president & COO Rohit Kapoor has sold a portion of his shares to pocket $1.26 million or about Rs 5.04 crore in just two transactions in December, the firm’s HR head Deepak Dhawan sold his remaining 40,000 shares to take home $1 million or about Rs 4 crore. Vice-chairman & CEO Vikram Talwar too has sold some of his stock to garner about $344,873 or Rs 1.38 crore in three tranches in November and December this year.

Via ET