NEW DELHI: IDFC First Bank MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan has gifted 9 lakh shares of the bank held by him (or 3.7% of the holding), worth over Rs 3.95 crore, to five individuals, including his trainer, househelp and driver, to help them purchase homes.
Add to this, another two lakh shares were disposed by Rukmani Social Welfare Trust, to support social activities, taking the total count to 11 lakh shares. Adding the two, the total amount comes to around Rs 4.83 crore.
“Thus, total shares disposed for gifts and social activities is 11,00,000 equity shares of IDFC FIRST Bank Limited, and it is submitted as part of these disclosures, that there are no direct or indirect benefits derived by V Vaidyanathan from these transactions,” IDFC First Bank said in a regulatory filing.
Earlier in May 2021, he had gifted 1.5 lakh shares each to three persons to buy homes. According to Bloomberg, Vaidyanathan, 54, has gifted roughly 38% of his stake since Jan 2018, when he was head of shadow lender Capital First that was later merged with IDFC Bank to create IDFC First Bank.
That includes a 2020 gift to his former maths teacher who had lent Vaidyanathan RS 500 when the now CEO was a broke student who had won admission into a premier school but didn’t have the cash to travel to the institute.
Vaidyanathan has gifted 3 lakh shares to his trainer Ramesh Raju; 2 lakh shares each to househelp Pranjal Narvekar and driver Algarsamy C Munapar; and 1 lakh shares each to office support staff Deepak Pathare and househelp Santosh Jogale.