At this time last year, Teva ($TEVA) kept its CEO pay to itself. But a legal settlement over the summer changed all that, and now shareholders have the opportunity to vote in a Feb. 24 meeting on specific compensation numbers disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday for incoming CEO Erez Vigodman.
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| Teva CEO Erez Vigodman |
According to the filing, Vigodman will receive a base salary in Israeli shekels that totals about $1,350,000, assuming voters approve. But as is often the case when it comes to exec pay, the base salary is just the tip of the iceberg.
Vigodman's bonus, for example, will trump that base pay at $1.89 million--140% of his salary--if he meets all of Teva's objectives for the year. But that bonus could vault up to a maximum of 200% of the base pay, or $2.7 million, if Vigodman exceeds Teva's expectations.
Then there's the equity-based compensation, which includes an award valued at about $3 million on its own. That comprises 80% in options to pick up Teva shares with another 20% in restricted shares; those get an exercise price of $41.05 per share, the closing price the day before Teva publicly announced Vigodman as Teva's next chief.
Teva will also take good care of Vigodman when he leaves, provided he gives appropriate notice and abides by certain provisions. He'll be entitled to 18 times his monthly base salary; if his leaving follows within one year of a merger, Vigodman will get a lump sum worth 12 monthly base salaries. But in a firing situation, that payment would be up to the board's discretion. He'll be eligible for other payments, too, depending on the circumstances.
Exec compensation at Teva was pretty opaque until recently, when two shareholders sued, demanding more information. In settling, Teva agreed to stop exploiting a legal loophole that had allowed it from 2000-2012 to report only the total paid to its top 5 managers.
But while shareholders may have appreciated the transparency, at least some of them were none too happy with what they found out. CEO Jeremy Levin took heat during layoff protests for collecting about $4.1 million in 2012 from a company looking to cut 8,500 jobs, some of them in Teva's native Israel.
- see the filing
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Editor's note: This article was corrected to reflect termination pay as 18 times the monthly base salary.