HUL Chairman remuneration marginally down in FY19, bonus nearly halved

MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) chairman Sanjiv Mehta's total remuneration fell nearly 3% to around Rs 18.88 crore for financial year 2018-19 even as the country's biggest consumer goods firm posted 15% increase in net profit.

Mehta, who was also appointed president of Unilever South Asia and a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE) in May this year, saw his bonus halve to Rs2.73 crore during the year, compared to Rs5.58 crore in FY17-18. According to the company’s latest annual report, the percentage increase in the median remuneration of employees also fell marginally to 4.2%.

HUL had 5,645 permanent employees on its rolls as on March 31, 2019. Average increase made in the salaries of employees other than the managerial personnel in the financial year was 7% while the target increase in the managerial remuneration was 6%. "The average increases every year is an outcome of company’s market competitiveness as against its peer group companies. In keeping with our reward philosophy and benchmarking results, the increases this year reflect the market practice," said the annual report filed on Monday


Under Mehta’s leadership, HUL reported its highest ever EBITDA margins at 22.9% last fiscal on sales growth of 12%. HUL is regarded as a proxy for consumer sentiment in the country. India is also the second-largest market for Unilever after the US, contributing more than 9% to total sales and about a fourth of its market capitalisation.