In the wake of his resignation as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eternal, Deepinder Goyal is set to surrender his employee stock options (ESOPs) worth around ₹900-1,000 crores, as per The Economic Times.
According to the news portal, Eternal’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Akshant Goyal, said during the company’s earnings call that Deepinder Goyal’s ESOPs will surrender 3.3 crore shares, adding to the company’s stock option pool. At present, the Eternal’s stock pool has 20 crore shares.
“We have a large ESOP pool, which has north of about 20 crore shares…his (Deepinder’s) ESOPs will perhaps expand the pool by 3.3 crore shares. Because the pool has expanded, we may not need to dilute our ESOPs again for slightly longer than what we would have otherwise done,” The Economic Times cited Goyal.
In his letter to the company’s shareholders announcing his resignation, Goyal had stated that his ESOPs would revert to the company’s ESOP pool.
“As part of this transition, all of my unvested ESOPs will revert to the ESOP pool. This ensures that Eternal continues to have meaningful wealth-creation opportunities for its next generation of leaders, while strengthening long-term retention without incremental shareholder dilution,” said Goyal in the letter.
Goyal had announced his exit on January 21, 2026, claiming that he was resigning to pursue ventures that are “higher risk” in nature, and, as such, not possible to be pursued while heading a publicly listed company.
“I have found myself drawn to a set of new ideas that involve significantly higher-risk exploration and experimentation. These are the kinds of ideas that are better pursued outside a public company like Eternal,” Goyal explained. He will, pending shareholder approval, take up the role of Vice Chairman and Director role, while Albinder Dhindsa will become the new CEO.
