BENGALURU, May 23 (Reuters) - India's No.4 IT services

firm Wipro paid $20.1 million in annual compensation

to former CEO Thierry Delaporte who resigned in April, well

before his five-year term was set to end in July 2025.

The Frenchman's compensation included $3.9 million in salary

and allowances, about $5.1 million in variable pay, the cost of

accelerated vesting of his stock options and cash compensation

of $4.3 million, the company revealed in its annual report on

Thursday.

Wipro said the cash payment was "to enable a smooth

transition, ensure business continuity and to ensure adherence

to post-engagement obligations" such as maintaining

confidentiality and avoiding making derogatory comments about

the company.

"The company would have taken into consideration the French

employment laws which are vastly different than American and

Indian employment laws and sided towards employees," Shriram

Subramanian, the founder of proxy advisory firm InGovern

Research, said.

"The compensation seems to be comparable to other outside

CEOs of large IT services companies."

Delaporte was the highest-paid Indian IT CEO in fiscal 2023.

During his tenure, Wipro changed its operating model twice in

three years, struggled to bag large deals and witnessed several

top-level departures.

"Higher CEO salaries is a global phenomena in all

companies," Pareekh Jain, the founder of IT research firm EIIR

Trend, said. "These CEOs are also not sitting in India, you have

to give them global salaries, and attract by giving more than

what they could have gotten in another company."

Delaporte's exit was the latest in a series of management

changes at top Indian IT companies.

Former Tata Consultancy Services CEO Rajesh

Gopinathan resigned in March 2023 and got 480 million Indian

rupees ($5.77 million) in post-employment benefits. Cognizant

paid about $6.5 million to former CEO Brian Humphries,

whose employment was terminated involuntarily in 2023.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan

and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)