Genpact execs' salaries among highest in India

BANGALORE: Genpact’s top five executives earned a total salary of $6.8 million last year. In what could be one of the highest salaries paid to a professional CEO in India, Pramod Bhasin, 55, president and CEO of Genpact earned an annual salary of $2.8 million in 2006.

Mr Bhasin’s compensation includes a salary of $6,10,000, annual bonus of $1,00,000, stock option awards of $9,71,123 and the rest in pension and retirement benefits and other benefits like housing, security and so on. Mr Bhasin is one of the founders of Genpact when GE started the company in India and serves as director on the company’s board.

“This package would easily put Mr Bhasin amongst the top five highest paid investor backed professional CEOs in the country,” says Priya Chetty Rajagopal, V-P, Stanton Chase International, an executive search firm.

Genpact’s next highest earning official is VN Tyagarajan, executive V-P, business development and head of sales who earned $1.2 million followed by Mitsuru Maekawa, CEO of Genpact Asia whose total package was $8,44,065. Genpact disclosed the information in a preliminary prospectus filed by the company with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 11, 2007.

In what is reflective of the growing importance of India in global markets, CEO salaries in India have gone up sharply in the last few years. Says K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners International, “There are at least a hundred CEOs earning $1 million in salary in India today.”

Close to half of this salary includes performance linked bonuses as well as stock options. Some of the highest paying executives are found in industries like large investment banks, telecom companies and banks. Search executives say that CEOs in companies such as IBM, Bharti, Reliance Retail, HSBC, Cairn and Walmart India are earning salaries in the range of $1 million and above. In 2006, India reported the highest salary increase in the Asia Pacific region.

Genpact began as an India based captive BPO arm of GE Capital. In 2005 GE spun it off as an independent business and renamed it Genpact. The company has 28,000 employees and earned revenue of $613 mn in 2006 with a profit of $39.8 mn.

It's attrition stood at 32 percent last year. Genpact filed a preliminary prospectus on May 11, 2007 for a listing on the NYSE. The company has not disclosed how many shares it will offer for sale and at what price. GE owns about 29% of the company.