Reuters chief's £12m pay packet
TOM Glocer, the American chief executive of financial information and news agency Reuters, collected a pay and shares package worth more than £12m for 2003 - a year in which the group made pre-tax profits of just £49m.
Glocer's remuneration package was under fire at last year's annual meeting and is bound to raise hackles once again this year. Reuters also revealed that new chairman Niall FitzGerald will be paid £500,000 a year when he takes over in October. That is almost twice the £262,500 outgoing chairman Sir Christopher Hogg was paid in 2003.
FitzGerald will be one of the best paid non-executive chairman of a FTSE 100 company. Only Barclays' Sir Peter Middleton receives more, at £528,000 a year. Vodafone's Sir Ian MacLaurin gets £463,000, Royal Bank of Scotland's Sir George Mathewson £468,000 and Dennis Stevenson of HBOS £473,000.
FitzGerald is expected to work 'between two and three days a week' for Reuters and he will not be eligible for bonuses, share awards or pension contributions.
However, he will leave Unilever with a pension package worth at least £11.7m.
Glocer has joined with fellow directors in a second year of a freeze on basic pay but nevertheless-saw his basic salary, bonus and benefits package rise from £1.71m to £1.9m million in 2003. He also received a £167,000 payment into his pension fund.
But the number of shares given to Glocer under the long-term incentive plan will attract most attention. He was given 1.73 million shares in February 2003 when the price was 135p. However, at today's price of 362p that award is worth £6.27m. Reuters pointed out that these shares are still conditional on Glocer satisfying performance targets over the next three years.
On the same date he was also awarded 1.3 million share options exercisable at 135p, which are currently worth £3m. A smaller option award, exercisable at 245p was made six months later, and that is now worth £826,000. A Reuters spokeswoman said Glocer had 'not sold a single share since his appointment in July 2001'.
He has been forced by institutions to cut down on his contract, which could have seen him pick up twice his salary and bonuses in the event of a takeover of the group. This will come down to 12 months over the next two years.
His earnings in 2004 could be even higher since his possible bonus rises from 125% of salary to 150%. He picked up only an 80% bonus last year, and 2004 performances are based on tougher guidelines more closely linked to Reuters' profits.
