Ex-BP chief Looney hands back £3million
...as new boss takes home bumper £8m
BP’S former boss was last year forced to hand back £3m of pay as he was stripped of his earnings after quitting in disgrace.
in one of the biggest corporate scandals of recent years, the energy giant ousted Bernard Looney in September after he failed to be ‘fully transparent’ about personal relationships with staff.
The board, led by chairman Helge Lund, later found him guilty of serious misconduct and said it would claw back £32m of past and future earnings.
The BP annual report for 2023, which was published yesterday, showed Looney returned £3m of his historic pay last year through so-called ‘malus and clawback’ rules.
That was more than the £1.2m he received in salary and other benefits, meaning his total earnings last year were ‘minus’ £1.8m. By contrast, his successor Murray Auchincloss, who was finance chief before taking over from Looney in the top job, was paid £8m.
That was up from the £5.4m he earned the previous year, when Looney landed £10.3m.
The High Pay Centre, a corporate governance think tank, said the ‘huge pay award’ for Auchincloss was ‘a damning indictment of an economic model which is failing both consumers and the planet’.
High Pay Centre spokesman Andrew Speke said: ‘While we question the fairness of the levels of pay BP continues to pay out to executives, particularly while households have struggled so much with mounting bills, it is welcome in this instance to see the application of malus and clawback.
‘This appears to be one positive outcome of the new corporate governance code, and it will be interesting to see whether such cases become more commonplace.’
Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, said the ‘minus’ figure on Looney’s pay was ‘unusual but unsurprising’ given BP’s decision to strip him of £32m in past and future earnings.
‘From its perspective, BP will no doubt be relieved that a line can now presumably be drawn under the matter,’ he added. Auchincloss’s pay package consisted of more than £1.5m in salary, benefits and cash in lieu of pension. He was also handed a £1.8m bonus, and a little under £4.7m in shares that were linked to performance.
BP last month reported a sharp fall in profits to £11bn for 2023. They were still the second-highest in a decade after the £22bn the previous year when the war in Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring.
Auchincloss has also come under pressure to water down the green agenda pursued by Looney. However, he has pledged to continue with the strategy of his predecessor and sought to boost the share price with the promise of more buybacks and dividends.
AViVA chief executive Amanda Blanc will become senior non-executive director at BP next month. Blanc, who was paid £161,000 by BP last year as a director, on top of the £6.6m she earned at the insurer, will succeed Paula Reynolds.