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Undeserving CEOs get 900% salary hikes

With the Indian economy slowing down in FY09, many of us felt the pinch in terms of shrinking wallets and rampant cost cutting exercises by corporates leading to the ever palpable fear of job losses. But there were certain people who appeared to have a field day during the year gone by. Yes, I am talking about CEOs of real estate companies, who took pay hikes of nearly 2-10 times despite their respective companies facing a decline in both revenues and profits.

In fact, the salary hikes of some of the top real estate companies were greater in FY09 when their businesses were considerably impacted by the economic slowdown.

I find the intentions of these managements really appalling. There is a brilliant email doing rounds about confession of a job hopper which talks about these great CEOs. Good management practices call for giving due consideration to the interests of shareholders and customers first, but real estate CEOs seem more concerned about building their booty. It did not matter to them that the performance of their respective companies was nothing much to talk about during that year. A strong management is a qualitative factor to be considered while investing in equities. Therefore, while it not simple to attribute any number to the same, certain facts mentioned in annual reports do give some idea.

In fact, annual reports of companies disclose the pay packages that the top brass takes home and should definitely be looked at while studying annual reports. As investors, do you give due consideration to the pay packets that CEOs take home?

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