Lucio and Susan Co emerge as the country’s poorest-paid billionaires
Are retail tycoons Lucio Co and his wife Susan emulating legendary investor Warren Buffett as far as executive compensation is concerned?
Like Buffett, who for decades has kept his annual salary at a modest $100,000, the Puregold owners have maintained the same salaries since the retail chain went public in 2011.
According to the latest regulatory filings, Lucio Co pays himself P6 million a year as chairman, his wife and vice chairman Susan P2.4 million annually, and Puregold president Leonardo Dayao an even modest P1.95 million a year.
The three also do not receive any per diem for board meetings, reserving the grant of P30,000 honorarium for the non-executive directors.
The couple also receive no salary from their listed holding company, Cosco Capital. Ex-BPI banker Dayao, as Cosco Capital capital, receive an eyewatering P120,000 a year package, much less than what a call center agent makes.
Still, even if they are modestly paid, the Cos like the legendary American investor have already been and continuous to be richly rewarded.
Puregold rang out P4.52 billion in net income for 2014, and 7.67 percent of that amount, about P346 million, should directly accrue to Lucio Co on account of his personal shareholdings alone.
Another P291 million should similarly accrue to Susan on account of her 6.44 percent personal shareholdings in the retail chain.
Puregold itself ended Friday with a market value of nearly P113 billion while the Cos’ holding company. Cosco Capital, merited another P64 billion.
Forbes estimated the couple’s wealth at $1.7 billion, making the Cos the 12th richest Filipinos for the 2015 list.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue reported that Lucio Co in 2013 paid income tax of over P13.6 million, slightly ahead of the P13.3 million shelled out by taipan Lucio Tan, by Forbes’ reckoning the country’s second richest man with $4.6 billion net worth.
Profit-share makes up for modicum pay
Like many Chinoy-owned enterprises, Philtrust Bank’s executive compensation package tend to be on the low-side of the scale.
Thus, even if he were once the central bank governor, Philtrust chairman and president Jaime Laya had to contend with P10.7 million in combined compensation in 2014 for himself and executive vice presidents Virginia Choa-Shi and Paterno Bacani Jr.
The board members, on the other hand, each receive an almost eleemosynaric P10,000 per diem for every board meeting attended.
To make up for the modest amounts, the late Philtrust owner, publisher-hotelier Emilio Yap, devised a more imaginative, more scalable pay package, one that is indexed to the bank’s performance.
What he did was to set aside 10 percent of the annual income before income tax as profit-share for everyone, divided as follows: four percent to employees, four percent to officers and two percent to directors.
For 2014, the country’s second oldest commercial bank cranked out P1.318 billion in pre-tax income, which means P131.8 million went to the profit-sharing pot.
For the 11 Philtrust directors -- meaning Laya, retired Supreme Court Justice Josue Bellosillo, Basilio Yap, Emilio Yap III, retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., Ernesto Chan, Tomas Apacible, Jose Fernandez, Miriam Cu, Johnny Yap, and Francis Gaw -- their share of the profit pie should amount to nearly P2.4 million each.
Even better for Laya, the former gov gets another slice of the P52-million pie reserved for an undisclosed number of Philtrust officers.
Money talks
• Thanks to the merger with Allied Bank, Philippine National Bank president Reynaldo Maclang can look forward to this year’s senior management compensation to double from the pre-merger levels two years ago.
Maclang and executive vice presidents Cenon Audencial Jr., Horacio Cebrero III, Christopher Dobles and Jovencio Hernandez can expect their combined basic salaries this year to jump to P60.8 million from the 2013-level of P30.36 million.
Likewise, their combined year-end bonuses can expect a two-fold increase to P14.5 million from P7.7 million.
• Globe Telecom has quietly dropped its longtime auditor SGV in favor of Deloitte Navarro Amper & Co., not because the Zobels had unresolved issues with SGV or partner-incharge Gemilo San Pedro, but because Deloitte happens to be the independent auditor of Globe’s main foreign investor, Singapore Telecom.
Heard through the grapevine
Ayala heir Inigo Zobel has revived a pro-Chavit Singson campaign within the Manila Polo Club, buttonholing key officers to reconsider their earlier denial of the membership application of the controversial Edsa II hero to the country’s most exclusive family club.
E-mail: cocktales_tv5@yahoo.com