Shareholders of InterGlobe Aviation have approved the allotment of stock options worth ₹14 crore to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ronojoy Dutta.

The options can be exercised within three years.

InterGlobe Aviation operates aviation services under the brand name of Indigo. It is the largest airline (in terms of market share) in the country.

According to postal ballot result— as informed by the company to the stock exchanges— 88.38 per cent votes were in the favour of the resolution of providing the stock options.

This includes votes from promoters too. However, over 61 per cent of institutional votes went against the resolution, but other shareholders overwhelmingly supported it.

At ₹765 a share

The company had called for a special resolution to approve revision of the remuneration payable to Dutta, also serving as whole time director of the company, by way of grant of 185,000 stock options to be exercised at ₹765 a share, amounting to over ₹14 crore.

Dutta was appointed as the chief executive officer of the firm from January 24, 2019.

As per the company’s 2019-20 annual report, Dutta received a total remuneration of over ₹11.4 crore and an additional amount of ₹5.60 crore as a ‘committed’ bonus for the year.

Exercising ESOP

Dutta can exercise 25 per cent of his allotted employee stock options post one year from the date of grant, 35 per cent post two years and 40 per cent on December 23, 2023. The company has decided to grant remuneration by stock options to its senior-most executive at a time when the domestic airline industry is struggling financially on account of the pandemic leading to subdued passenger load and revenues.

The airline, last year, had retrenched 10 per cent of its staff of about 2,300 employees and undertook a salary cut of 5-25 per cent for most employees.

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