OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal's salary rose eight fold in FY21: DRHP

He earned Rs 1.62 crore that year, against Rs 21.5 lakh in the previous financial year

According to the Draft Redding Herring Prospectus Oyo filed on Friday, the salary of the firm’s founder Ritesh Agarwal rose eightfold to Rs 1.62 crore in financial year 2020-21 from Rs 21.5 lakh the previous year.
 
The firm said in its draft papers that its other top paid key managerial personnel are Chief Financial Officer Abhi­shek Gupta and Aditya Ghosh, the non-executive nominee director.

Agarwal's payout of Rs 1.62 crore seems to be in line with a quarter's worth of compensation given that he had foregone his salary in 2020.
 
Ghosh earned Rs 5.74 crore, whereas Gupta was paid Rs 7.14 crore in FY21. “Our founder, Ritesh Agarwal was appointed as chairman pursuant to a Board resolution dated Sept­ember 21. Agarwal is also the global chief executive officer of one of our subsidiaries, Oyo Singapore, the firm said.
 
The principal terms of Agarwal’s appointment as global CEO of Oyo Singapore, set out in the employment agreement signed June 27, 2019, entitles him to a gross annual remuneration of Rs 1.06 crore, along with perquisites such as accommodation.
 
Further, Agarwal’s annual salary was raised by an addi­tional Rs 4.45 crore by Oyo Sing­apore with effect from January 1, 2021, the DRHP explains.
 
In April 2020, as the pandemic began taking a toll on the hospitality sector, Agarwal said he would take a 100 per cent salary cut for the rest of the year and the company’s entire executive leadership team also said they would take a voluntary pay cut starting at 25 per cent and going up to 50 per cent to help build the runway for the company.
 
Ghosh, who was earlier the president of IndiGo Airlines, saw his salary rise to 5.74 crore in FY21 from Rs 1.8 crore a year earlier. Gupta saw his remuneration fall to Rs 7.14 crore in FY21 from Rs 8.73 crore a year ago.
 
 
Among other key management personnel are Ashish Garg, company secretary, who was paid Rs 12.7 lakh, down from Rs 28.6 lakh the previous year.
 
Director Betsy Atkins, the CEO and founder of Baja Corporation, drew salary of Rs 1.28 crore in FY21, nearly double the Rs 64 lakh earned the previous year. Two other directors — W Steve Albrecht and Troy Matthew Alstead — were paid Rs 1.48 crore and Rs 1.3 crore in FY21, respectively.
 
The company last year also undertook a slew of measures including asking all employees to take a 25 per cent pay cut and furloughing others. As of March 31, its total employee base was 5,130 people, of whom nearly 80 per cent are based in India.