Arrowhead thumbs its nose at the critics by giving CEO more and slashing its dividend
Analysts and market commentators are up in arms about the remuneration that executives are enjoying. Diversified group Arrowhead Properties stands out as one of the highest payers.
CEO Mark Kaplan’s takehome pay is up 14.5% while the rest of the companies in SA suspend bonuses and increases.
Kaplan took a hit to his salary, but this shortfall was more than made up for with a growing bonus that rose from R3.9m to R5.7m while his salary dropped from R5.4m to R4.96m.
Meanwhile, Arrowhead’s dividends plummeted.
The company has an A- and B-share structure designed to appeal to shareholders with varying risk appetites. Investors in A shares, who tend to be risk averse, have a preferential claim to earnings and are paid their dividends before B-share investors.
Its B shares are more popular among investors and are traded in far higher daily volumes than its A shares.
Arrowhead declared a dividend of 115.46c per A share and 32.99c per B share for its financial year, meaning its A-share dividend payout rose 3.5% and the B share fell 52% in comparison with those of its 2019 financial year.
That ’ s a lousy return for any investor.
THEFT OF ABSA CLIENT DATA HIGHLIGHTS VULNERABILITY
In the olden days, thieves had to run into a bank branch and shout “give me all your money ” to rob the bank.
Nowadays, thieves walk into buildings armed with flash drives and whisper “give me all your data”.
The unfortunate admission by the banking group Absa that a small quantity of customer data was obtained unlawfully by an employee and sold to third parties has once again raised the spectre of the theft of personal information mere months after credit bureau Experian admitted it had been duped into handing over millions of client records.
But with a new age come new risks.
As the banks steadily close or downsize physical branches and the arrival of Covid-19 reduces the need for cash, ever more criminal effort will focus on the retrieval of sensitive client information that can be used to mislead the public into parting with their money.
Developments at Absa show just how difficult preventing this can be if employees are involved in disseminating the information. As with more conventional fraud, as diligent and prudent as a company may be in attempting to prevent it, it is virtually impossible to stop when people inside the company are acting with criminal or reckless intent.
What is encouraging is that companies have access to legal means to conduct search and seizure operations to recover devices and track the flow of information, something that has been put into effect in the Absa and Experian case.
But whether the public likes it or not, this will be a feature of the financial landscape for years.