Universal Partners paid R2.7m in fees to directors

UNIVERSAL Partners, an investment holding company, said last week that it paid its independent non- executive and non- executive directors a total of £ 126 000 ( R2.7 million) in fees for the year to end of 2020, according to its annual report published last week.

The group’s non- executive chairperson, Larry Nestadt, received £ 40 000 in fees during the year, which were the highest compared with the other non- executive and independent non- executive directors. The group said its board has delegated to the corporate governance committee the responsibility of determining the appropriate remuneration to be paid to the non- executive chairperson, the independent non- executive directors and the non- executive directors.

“The company’s underlying philosophy is to set remuneration at an appropriate level to retain, motivate and attract high- calibre personnel and directors, and to reward them in accordance with their individual as well as collective contribution towards the achievement of the company’s objectives and performance, while taking into account current market conditions and/ or other factors which may be determined from time to time,” the group said.

The other non- executive and independent non- executive directors, which include Marc Ooms, Neil Page, Peter Gain and Andrew Dunn, were each paid £ 18 000 during the year, while Francoise Chan’s and Kesaven Moothoosamy’s remuneration was incorporated into the fees paid by the company to Intercontinental Trust Limited.

The fee paid to Intercontinental Trust was £ 14 000, the report stated.

Universal Partners did not provide the remuneration of its three executive directors. The executive partners are chief executive Pierre Joubert, chief financial officer David Vinokur and executive director Andrew Birrell.

The group is listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius with a secondary listing on the Alternative Exchange of the JSE.