Burmans ask Care Health to claw back Rs 350 crore ESOPs given to Religare's Saluja
Burmans, who own consumer-goods major Dabur and are the biggest shareholders of Religare Enterprises, have sought the cancellation of stock options worth ₹350 crore granted by Care Health Insurance to Religare chairperson Rashmi Saluja, intensifying the dispute between the management of the company and one of India's most prominent business families. Care Health is a Religare subsidiary and Saluja is the non-executive chairperson of Care Health.
The Burmans have threatened the Care board that if it fails to nullify the employee stock options, then legal action will be taken against the directors, including attachment of their personal assets.
«Given the acquirers (Burmans) are significant shareholders of REL, holding 25.94% of shares, the board's act of illegally 'gifting' these options to Rashmi Saluja has caused the acquirers a material loss,» said the Burmans in their March 12 letter to Care. Saluja-led Religare, on the other hand, has sought intervention by the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India in the matter.
Email queries sent to the Burman family and Religare didn't elicit any response until the publication of this report.
The Burman family's open offer to buy additional shares from public stockholders and boost its equity ownership in Religare has allegedly been opposed by its board. The Burman family recently sought the regulators' intervention in the open offer matter, alleging it faced a «complete absence of cooperation and support» from Religare about acquiring certain
