Ayala’s six execs got P214-M perks in 2012
IF the members of the five-man administrative body of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) read at least once a year the compensation filings of listed companies, they should have noticed by now, if not long time ago, that Liberty Flour Mills Inc. (LFM) does things differently. As a mat- ter of fact, they might have even concluded that the company has been violating the SEC’s policy on full disclosure rule with “over-compliance.”
On a more positive note, SEC Chairman Teresita Herbosa and the four commissioners could have started studying more closely the contents of LFM’s compensation disclosures. Their appreciation of them should have triggered a survey of the market to find out if the public would prefer to be fully informed of the compensation of their managers as a group or as individuals. Certainly, everybody would prefer the latter, an assumption that would not need a survey to confirm the public preference.
LFM way. To show how LFM does things differently, here are some numbers other listed company would never want in their own: In 2010, Felix Maramba Jr., who was in his last year as LFM president, got paid for P6.907 million; William Carlos Uy, chairman and comptroller, P6.537 million; Jose Ma. Lopez, senior vice president (SVP), P6.299 million and Sandra Judy Uy, vice president, P6.508 million. Except for Lopez, all of them were also members of the board.
Individual pays. The following year, LFM also disclosed the individual pays and perks of the following: William Carlos Uy, chairman and president, received P4.142 million consisting of salary, P1.146 million, and bonus, P2.931 million; Jose Ma. Lopez, SVP, P4.316 million, salary, P1.854 million, and bonus, P2.397 million; and Sandra Judy Uy, VP and director, P4.079 million— salary, P1.083 million, and bonus, P2.931 million. Each of them, according to the same filing also received as additional pays and perks P65,000 each in 2011.
The disclosure of the individual pay of Maramba and company in 2010 would have been more than enough to properly comply with the market’s reporting rule. But then, LFM probably still found its own filing inadequate and decided to give the market more information by detailing its executives’ individual wealth even more. It was not satisfied with simply coming out with the totals for the members of the team, a disclosure strategy that should make executive compensation a good guessing game among investors.
When finally LFM disclosed more than what it was required, the public learned that Maramba’s pay package consisted of P1.442 million in basic pay, P5.418 million, bonus, and P47,000, other pays and perks.
More details. If the SEC would want to make a comparison between the compensation disclosures of LFM and those of other public companies, it should have data to start with. Certainly, the contents of LFM’s compensation disclosure may be much more different from those filed by other listed companies. Some would argue that that’s the way it wants to do it, so let it do it its own way. Probably, its intention is to please the market by giving it the information they would love to read. Who would not be curious to know not only the total compensation a company pays its