i-Bankers Likely To Offer Pay Hike Up To 60% to Lure B-School Freshers

Ahmedabad: This year, the multinationals led by investment banks are likely to raise variable component in salary offers to lure more B-School freshers. The as higher growth at home and recovering Western economies prompt companies to speed up dealmaking activity. Earlier, two year ago the variable pay portion was around 20% and will rise up to 60% this time.

According to the statement issued by IIM-A Director Prof Samir Barua has said that recruiters will give higher compensation in performance-linked salary. He also said that they may not increase fixed salary significantly, but will offer higher variable pay.

HR consultants say increasing number of M&As will raise chances of recruits earning more than the promised portion of variable pay. Sunil Goel, director, GlobalHunt, a Delhibased executive search firm has said that there is certainly a possibility that a number of crore-plus salary packages will be bagged by premier B-schools like IIMs.

In addition, a campus official at one of the IIMs said that five to six candidates were offered packages, including variable, above Rs 1 crore last year for foreign locations. This number is expected to rise to 10-12 this year at that IIM. B-schools do not give out salary figures and announce only average salary figures after the placement season.

The campus recruitments have started at IIM-Ahmedabad and the process will begin at other IIMs next month. However, corporates have already given out pre-placement offers, or PPOs, to those who had interned with them. The number of PPOs is higher this year, up from 60 to 80 at IIM-A and 70 to 73 at IIM-Bangalore.

Furthermore, the investment banks such as Citi Bank, UBS, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse offer packages in the range of 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh. In addition, most of the crore-plus packages will ride the rising quantum of variable pay, a segment used by recruiters to slash costs during recession. Variable pay is increased when companies want to control their fixed costs amid any downturn in economy.