Many of the most interesting nuggets on executive pay are buried so deep in the new corporate filings that it helps to bring along a calculator and a shovel.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission's new disclosure rules were supposed to make it easier for investors to understand how top managers were being paid. But piles of new data and proxy statements that are about as easy to parse as the federal tax code have even experts scratching their heads.
"There is an awful lot of stuff you have to wade through to get to the stuff that matters," said Jannice Koors, a compensation consultant at Pearl Meyer & Partners. "We are now in the business of data mining."
Among the choice details recently unearthed in recent filings:
Ray Irani, Occidental Petroleum's chairman and chief executive, is so far the highest paid corporate chief whose compensation package was tallied under the new rules.
Irani's total pay was about US$52.1 million last year, according to an analysis by Equilar, the executive compensation research firm. But that was just the amount that Occidental's board awarded him last year.
Stocks and options
In fact, Irani took home a lot more. First, there was the US$270.1 million in profit from stock options he cashed out last year. Then there was the US$93.3 million that Irani withdrew from a huge deferred stock plan that was revealed for the first time this year under the new rules.
(It is found in a table on page 28 of the Occidental proxy statement, in the kind of fine print often used by credit card and insurance companies.)
According to its proxy statement, the company ended the program late last year in light of the substantial "liability and expense" of the program.
Of course, Irani can expect even more money down the road. Besides his annual pay, he still can tap at least four other deferred compensation plans, totaling at least US$124 million.
IBM will freeze this year an executive retention plan that helped bolster retirement benefits for Samuel Palmisano, its chairman and chief executive, to more than US$33 million. On top of his US$18.8 million pension, Palmisano is eligible to collect about US$14.2 million through a special retention plan.
In its proxy statement, IBM said that it set up the program in 1995 to kee senior managers when the company's "very existence" was at risk, but that the "original purpose had been met."
Buried
Buried in the proxy of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer were details about more than the money it pays its board members and top executives. The company also took the unusual step of disclosing its independent compensation consultant's compensation.
"The total amount of fees paid to Frederic W. Cook & Co for services to the committee in 2006 was US$184,555," Pfizer's proxy revealed.
That works out to at least US$15,000 a month just so the company can be certain that the wages and benefits of its top executives are well designed and competitive.
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
SPEECH IMPEDIMENT? The state department said that using routine celebrations or public remarks as a pretext for provocation would undermine peace and stability Beijing’s expected use of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech today as a pretext for provocative measures would undermine peace and stability, the US Department of State said on Tuesday. Taiwanese officials have said that China is likely to launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims. A state department spokesperson said it could not speculate on what China would or would not do. “However, it is worth emphasizing that using routine annual celebrations or public remarks as a pretext or excuse for provocative or coercive
CONCERNS: Allowing the government, political parties or the military to own up to 10 percent of a large media firm is a risk Taiwan cannot afford to take, a lawyer said A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator has proposed amendments to allow the government, political parties and the military to indirectly invest in broadcast media, prompting concerns of potential political interference. Under Article 1 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), the government and political parties — as well as foundations established with their endowments, and those commissioned by them — cannot directly or indirectly invest in satellite broadcasting businesses. A similar regulation is in the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法). “The purpose of banning the government, political parties and the military from investing in the media is to prevent them from interfering
RSS