Ex-SABMiller CEO Clark was “best-value boss”
Best value for whom? In an interesting piece of gushing adulation, SABMiller’s last CEO Alan Clark, 57, was lauded as the best-value-for-money boss on the FTSE 100, meaning he had made shareholders very rich by selling the brewer to AB-InBev for GBP 80 billion (USD 102 billion) in September. The sale of SABMiller was the biggest ever takeover of a British-listed company.
“For every pound paid to Clark in the past four years, shareholders have received GBP 5,984 (USD 7,642) in return”, said remuneration consultant Pearl Meyer, whose finding was reported by The Sunday Times on 13 November 2016.
Reportedly, Mr Clark’s total pay in 2015 was GBP 5.9 million (USD 7.5 million). He was also in line for a GBP 55 million (USD 70 million) payout from the deal through share awards and options amassed during his 26 years at the company.
The paper acknowledged that Mr Clark’s performance was “somewhat inflated by the year-long bid battle for SAB, which saw the brewer’s shares rise more than 50 percent.”
Alas, this style of statistics conveniently ignores that Mr Clark could only sell such a prized asset because it had been cleverly put together by his predecessor Graham Mackay, who passed away in 2013.
What’s more, this value judgement does not take into account that many former SABMiller employees now face redundancy to help AB-InBev pay down its debts from the acquisition.
