BAT directors get 5% pay increase
Committee had to ‘consider many factors’
BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) has said that remuneration for its executive directors will increase by nearly 5 percent for the year to the end of December.
The tobacco company said in its annual report, published yesterday, that its remuneration committee had taken many factors into consideration before deciding on the salary increases for the year.
It said chief executive Nicandro Durante would earn £1.31 million (R21.89m) for the year, while financial director Ben Stevens would take home £924 000, excluding bonuses and other incentives.
The chairperson of the remuneration committee, Dimitri Panayotopoulos, said the committee had decided that the executive directors should receive salary increases within the range of those for its high-performing UK employees.
“With effect from April 1, 2018, the chief executive’s salary will be increased to £1.31m, and the finance director’s salary will be increased to £924 000.
“During 2018, the remuneration committee will undertake a full review of our existing remuneration policy, taking into account the updated UK corporate governance code and any further changes to regulations and guidance in anticipation of presenting a new policy for our shareholders to consider at our 2019 annual general meeting (AGM),” Panayotopoulos said.
The salary increases ranged between nil and 7.3 percent based on performance in the prior year, with an average increase of 3 percent.
“The remuneration committee also recognised the fact that the group is now a significantly more complex organisation as a result of both the Reynolds American (RAI) acquisition and organic growth, with increased profit from operations up 39.1 percent, revenue up 37.6 percent and volumes up 3.2 percent from 2016, and noted the exceptional individual performance shown during the year,” the group said.
Last year, BAT acquired the 57.8 percent of Reynolds it did not already own for $54.5 billion for total ownership.
In 2017, Durante and Stevens took home annual salaries of £1.24m and £887 000 respectively.
The group added that directors were employed on UK contracts. “Using a more widely drawn group encompassing the worldwide nature of the group’s business would also present practical difficulties in collation as well as presenting a less relevant comparator given the significant variations in employee pay across the group and the differing economic conditions and wide variations in gross domestic product per capita,” Panayotopoulos said.
The group’s chairperson, Richard Burrows, was paid an annual salary of £789 000 in 2017, up from £751 000 as compared to a year before.
Other non-executive directors, such as Sue Farr, were paid on average an annual salary of £113 000 for 2017.
In the annual report, the group also stated that, as announced in April 2017, it had moved to quarterly dividends with effect from January 1.