‘Sterling effort’ reaps rewards for Ninety One’s executive directors

TWO OF NINETY One’s executive directors took home a combined onceoff variable remuneration of £900 000 (R19.26 million) during the year to the end of March in a handsome award that the group ascribed to their sterling role in the group’s successful demerger from Investec.

The group said in its annual report yesterday that chief executive Hendrik du Toit scored a cool £500 000, while finance director Kim McFarland took home £400 000.

The group said

its remuneration committee decided to make the one-off variable remuneration awards, payable in cash, in recognition of the material time and effort devoted to the Ninety One business for the 2020 financial year in addition to their commitments as executive directors of Investec.

“This award further recognised that 2020 was a momentous year for Ninety One, delivering record earnings and the successful demerger from Investec, rebranding as Ninety One and listing on the London Stock Exchange and the JSE,” the group said.

Ninety One was spun off from Investec and listed separately on both exchanges in March.

The group reported a 10 percent increase in adjusted earnings per share to 16.1 pence, with net inflows and a torque ratio of 5.4 percent.

It said the results were well ahead of both UK and global industry fiveyear averages.

The group said the majority of its assets under management, on a firm-wide asset weighted basis, outperformed their basic benchmarks over one, three and five years.

Ninety One said Du Toit and McFarland entered into new service contracts in respect of their roles before the listing.

The group only listed the executive salaries for one month instead of the full year.

Du Toit’s total fixed remuneration for the month of March amounted to £55 244, which consisted of a fixed monthly salary of £54 294 and taxable benefit of £950. McFarland’s total fixed remuneration was £44 206, made up of a £43 410 salary and taxable benefits of £796.

Chairperson of the human capital and remuneration committee Colin Keogh said that there would be no change to the executive directors’ fixed remuneration for the 2021 financial year.

It said five non-executive directors were paid fees of £240 289 since their appointment in November last year, with chairperson Gareth Penny receiving a fee of £64 167 during the period.

“For the financial year 2021, no increases are proposed to the fixed remuneration for either of the executive directors.

“In relation to variable remuneration, the single incentive model proposed will measure performance relative to stretching targets across a range of financial and non-financial measures,” Keogh said.

Ninety One shares rose 0.84 percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R44.57.