World: SABMiller CEO shoulders near 17% drop in his pay packet

Alan Clark, the chief executive of SABMiller, has shouldered a near 17 per cent drop in his pay packet for the year to the end of March after the brewer, which has agreed to a takeover by its bigger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, suffered a drop in profits last year as a result of weak emerging market currencies and costs associated with negotiating the deal that has been dubbed “mega-brew”, the Financial Times reported on June 20.

Mr Clark’s total remuneration for the year dropped to £5.9 mln from £7.1 mln a year earlier, according to the brewer’s annual report published on June 20. His pay was affected by a big drop in the value of awards made under the brewer’s long-term incentive scheme, to £2.4 mln from £4.4 mln in 2015.

SABMiller reports its financial results in US dollars but is heavily focused on emerging markets in Latin America and Africa. A slide in emerging market currencies against the dollar has taken the fizz out of its recent results, while profits last year – which fell nearly 16 per cent to $4.07 bln – were also dragged down by hefty exceptional costs.

These included costs associated with negotiating its £71 bln takeover by AB InBev and impairments related to troubled divisions including its business in South Sudan, from which the brewer has been forced to withdraw following a shortage of foreign currency in the country.

However, Mr Clark received an increase in his annual bonus last year, to £1.7 mln from £1.1 mln a year earlier. Lesley Knox, chairman of the brewer’s remuneration committee, wrote in the annual report:

“Underlying revenue, EBITA and adjusted EPS growth resulted in above target bonuses for the year. However, the translational impact of currency depreciation against the US dollar caused some long-term incentive awards with three- to five-year performance periods to lapse with a nil payout.”

Mr Clark, a long-standing SABMiller employee who took over as chief executive in April 2013, owned 341,886 shares in the company as of June 10.

SABMiller and AB InBev agreed a £44-a-share deal in November last year but the acquisition took a big step closer to completion last month when the European Commission ruled the deal would not hurt consumer prices in the region.

21 June, 2016