Feeling the pinch but still doing nicely
By Eric Johnston | smh.com.au | 24 September
Origin Energy's Grant King...one of the biggest pay packets.
Selling electricity and gas proved more lucrative than toll roads and media when it came to executive pay over the past year.
Insurance beat out banking in the financial world, especially for those executives who had vacated their role in the previous 12 months.
According to a grab-bag of annual reports released yesterday, Origin Energy's chief executive, Grant King, took home one of the biggest pay cheques among the nation's biggest listed companies.
Mr King was paid just over $6 million in the year to the end of June, up from $4.89 million a year earlier. It was a tough year for most companies, but Origin grew earnings by 20 per cent to $530 million.
Significantly, Mr King received a $2.68 million bonus in the year he fought off a $13.6 billion takeover offer from British gas operator BG Group and instead forged a lucrative energy tie-up between Origin and the US company ConocoPhillips.
After being given a $15 million payout following the split of Consolidated Media Holdings from PBL Media, ConsMedia's executive chairman, John Alexander, had his annual base salary and short-term bonus slashed over the past year.
The drop in salary followed ConsMedia's profit falling to $84 million from $105 million a year ago. Overseeing a company with an investment in Foxtel and online recruitment interest Seek, Mr Alexander was paid $2.14 million last year, compared to $4.10 million a year earlier – although that was before the PBL termination payout in late 2007.
Also on Consolidated Media, for the second year running, director James Packer and his key adviser, Ashok Jacob, both took no payment for their board roles.
Things for executives at toll road operator ConnectEast were tough after the company posted an annual loss of $531.5 million and launched two capital raisings.
Its outgoing chief executive, John Gardiner, had his take home package cut to $866,371 from more than $1.74 million a year earlier.
Insurance Australia Group, which paid out its former chief executive, Mike Hawker, $1.93 million in termination benefits when he stood down in May last year, also bolstered the salary of its new chief executive Mike Wilkins.
In his first full year in the role, Mr Wilkins was paid $3.85 million in total, more than double the $1.46 million he was paid as a senior executive the previous year.
Mr Wilkins's latest salary included a short-term bonus of $1.1 million after IAG's swung back into a profit following a deep loss a year earlier.
Elsewhere, Bendigo Bank's former chief executive, Rob Hunt, was paid $3.56 million during his final year, including a $1.5 million bonus mostly as a result of Bendigo's merger with Adelaide Bank. Mr Hunt's package increased by more than $500,000 over the previous year.
First published by Smh.com.au on September 24 2009
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