Thursday, April 23, 2009

Daily news - 23 Apr

CapitaLand CEO bonus likely a hot topic
Capitaland heads into its annual general meeting (AGM) today in the awkward position of having to justify the $20.52 million bonus paid to chief executive Liew Mun Leong in 2007. The huge payout, which is thought to be the largest bonus ever awarded to a chief executive here in a single year, has quickly become the talk of the town. The amount came to light only when CapitaLand published its summary report for 2008 on March 24. CapitaLand justified the figure by pointing to the group's record profit of $2.76 billion that year. In the summary report, it was also revealed that Mr Liew was paid $6.36 million for 2006, when CapitaLand recorded a net profit of some $1.01 billion. When the three years from 2006 to 2008 are taken together, Mr Liew's total bonuses came to almost $30 million.

Smooth sailing at ST Engg AGM
Singapore Technologies Engineering's annual general meeting, held yesterday at the Holiday Inn Park View, passed happily almost without incident. It was over in an hour and the buffet spread afterwards was a reasonable use of shareholders' cash - fairly spartan, in other words. The only hiccup came midway when one shareholder asked how directors on the board were selected. Some directors, he said, hold too many posts and may find themselves overstretched. Chairman Peter Seah, who has multiple board seats, said: 'I don't wish to debate any article (but) when shareholders evaluate board members, they should evaluate based on performance of the company and not pick into individual board members.' He added: 'Members of the board are very experienced people and very highly regarded in their positions. We select based on what they can contribute . . . many have been on the board for a few years.'

Source: Kim Eng

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