NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing battle with the Dabur Group promoter -- Burman family -- over the control of Religare Enterprises (REL), chairman of REL Rashmi Saluja on Friday refuted allegations of insider trading as well as disproportionate salary being drawn by her.
Saluja said that no written or verbal communication by any member of the Burman family or its representative was made to her on the proposed open offer, and that there was no chance of her or the REL management of knowing about the Burman family’s intentions when she sold shares of the company.
Though she said that Anand Burman, the former chairman of the Dabur group and Arjun Lamba, a representative of the family, met her on 20th September 2023, but no information on the open offer was shared during the meeting.
“If they wanted to inform me in my capacity (as chairman of REL), then the only way you can inform is by writing a letter which they have been writing subsequent to that. There was never a written communication or verbal communication to myself or to the board at all,” said Saluja in a media briefing in New Delhi on Monday.
The Burman family had on 28th September announced the Rs 2,116-crore open offer to acquire up to 26% additional stake in the REL. Burman Family has a 25% stake in the company.
Burmans have alleged that Saluja possessed crucial price-sensitive information about the open offer, but did not disclose the same to stock exchanges before selling 2.71 million shares worth `43 crore between March 26 and 28.
On the allegation that she received a compensation of `500 crore including ESOPs of listed and unlisted group companies, Saluja said the she being the executive chairman of the group her remunerations get approved by special resolution. “There has not been a single time that it (compensation) has not been disclosed. There can be nothing under the table, every time it (compensation) has been given to the shareholders, and it has been approved with a special resolution,” she said, adding that she was reappointed (as chairman) by the shareholders with the absolute majority, on 27 September.
On insurance regulator –IRDAI – rejecting the board of Care Health Insurance proposal to offer Rs 350-crore ESOPs to Saluja, the executive chairman of REL clarified that the ESOP was granted to her as an employee of REL, which owns Care Health.
IRDAI in May 2022 had rejected the ESOPs proposal by Care Health Insurance board citing Saluja is largely a non-executive director in the company. However, the Care board proceeded with granting the Esops under the premise of Saluja’s employment with Religare Enterprises rather than her role at Care.