Top executives made less money in 2022

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Bosses of large Swiss companies tended to receive lower wages and bonus payments last year than in 2021. This is the result of an analysis by the news agency AWP.

The main reason: Falling stock prices have devalued the blocks of shares that top bosses receive as bonuses. The compensation shown in the annual reports was therefore lower than in the previous year. In 2021, two out of every three company executives had a salary increase.

Novartis and SGS bosses lose the most

Specifically, more than two-thirds of the salaries of senior executives of companies represented in the Swiss Leaders Index (SLI) were lower than in 2021. The wages and bonus payments of these 26 SLI companies that have published their 2022 annual reports have been evaluated. Of the 30 SLI companies, only AMS, Richemont, Logitech, and Sonova have yet to publish their 2022 compensation reports.

The clearest drop in fees is in pharmaceutical giant Novartis. CEO Vasant Narasimhan (46) received a total of 8.5 million francs in 2022. That’s 2.7 million francs less than in 2021! It is also the lowest salary Narasimhan has received since he took office in 2018.

Long Term Bonuses

The significantly lower long-term bonuses the Novartis boss receives compared to the business trajectory of 2020-2022 are at the center of the discount. Narasimhan acquired shares worth CHF 3.3 million in 2022. In 2021, he received almost twice as many bonuses for the years from 2019 to 2021. According to Novartis’ annual report, it has benefited from significant sales growth mainly due to the corona pandemic.

Frankie Ng, 57, head of goods inspection group SGS, was also forced to accept a net salary cut. His salary was 2.5 million francs lower and still 4.7 million francs. The share-based salary component was also significantly lower at CHF 2.38 million compared to CHF 4.73 million the previous year.

For Christian Mumenthaler (53), chairman of reinsurance group Swiss Re, who received a salary and bonus of 6.2 million francs, there was about one million francs less than in 2021.

The crisis was not felt in UBS

No signs of crisis on the UBS management floor: CEO Ralph Hamers (57) received 12.6 million francs in 2022, about 1.2 million francs more than the previous year. This places the resigned UBS boss in second place among the highest-paid CEOs in Switzerland, ahead of Nestlé’s Mark Schneider (57), who received a total compensation of CHF 10.3 million. As in previous years, Roche CEO Severin Schwan (55) received the highest salary of 15 million francs in 2022.

The largest pay increase was for Partners Group CEO David Layton (38). He managed to increase his salary by 1.3 million francs and thus received a salary and bonus of more than 9 million francs in 2022.

However, in addition to salaries and bonuses, many CEOs also make good returns on dividends from stocks that have been given to them in the past. Zurich boss Mario Greco (63), for example, received a dividend of 2.5 million francs in addition to his salary of 9.4 million francs. In the case of Roche CEO Severin Schwan, Roche dividends amounted to 2 million francs, while Nestlé boss Mark Schneider received more than 1.4 million francs from Nestlé.

Source :Blick