SBI Funds' ESOPs mint fortunes for top executives

Mumbai: Some of the top long-standing executives of SBI Funds Management have reaped a windfall following the listing of the country's largest asset manager on Tuesday. These officials were allotted Employee Stock Options (ESOPs), which are worth several crores in value after the fund house's stock market debut.

Post-listing, joint chief executive officer Devinder Pal Singh holds 21.14 lakh shares, the highest among employees in the company, valued at ₹128.9 crore. Additionally, Singh holds outstanding ESOPs of 5.19 lakh shares, valued at ₹31.65 crore. A mutual fund industry veteran with over 31 years of experience, Singh has spent 25 years with SBI Mutual Fund.

Srinivasan Rama Iyer, chief investment officer - equity, holds a stake valued at ₹111 crore, while his outstanding ESOPs, comprising 8.95 lakh shares, are worth another ₹54.57 crore. Iyer joined the firm in 2009.


Srinivas Jain, who heads strategy, digital and investor relations, has shares valued at ₹62.14 crore and outstanding ESOPs worth ₹10.43 crore. SBI Funds shares closed at ₹610.15 on the NSE on the listing day on Tuesday, up 6.30% over its issue price of ₹574 after hitting a high of ₹624.95.

Read more: SBI Funds makes strong D-St debut, ends 6.3% above IPO price

According to the IPO prospectus, SBI had allotted 3.68 crore shares to 625 employees since launching its ESOP scheme in 2018, at prices ranging between ₹38.75 and ₹455 apiece.

Among other senior executives, Rajeev Radhakrishnan, head of fixed income, has shares valued at ₹38.18 crore, while his outstanding ESOPs are valued at ₹74.39 crore. Aparna Nirgude, chief risk officer, and Vinaya Datar, chief compliance officer, also have shares valued at ₹33.13 crore and ₹21.91 crore, respectively.

Asset managers have increasingly rewarded senior executives with stock options in recent years, as the rapid expansion of India's mutual fund industry and soaring assets under management have boosted the valuations of listed fund houses. ESOPs are being used by fund houses as retention tools for top talent.

"Asset management has become an increasingly competitive industry where people matter a lot, and hence ESOP is being increasingly used as a long-term tool to reward and retain people," says Kaustubh Belapurkar, director (fund research), Morningstar India.