AB-InBev bosses pocket EUR 850 million bonus bonanza
It’s bonus season for bankers in the UK, including at banks bailed out by taxpayers. Many Britons’ underlying resentment of highly paid bankers has come to the fore.
So it’s hardly surprising that the London newspaper Sunday Times reported on 30 January 2011 that bankers are not the only ones receiving big bonuses. Forty top executives at AB-InBev too could be in line for payments worth hundreds of millions of euros in return for meeting targets related to reducing the brewer’s debt.
If the Stella Artois maker cuts its debt to 2.5 times its earnings (EBIT) by the end of 2013, bosses will reportedly receive 28.4 million stock worth EUR 850 million at the current share price. Chief executive Carlos Brito could alone receive share options worth almost EUR 100 million.
Half of the shares managers can sell as early as January 2014, the other half they have to keep until 2019.
Many analysts believe that already this year AB-InBev will have an EBIT of EUR 11 billion with debts standing at EUR 23.5 billion – or 2.2 times EBIT. Pay day is coming!
AB-InBev told media that “the selected executives for the options-grant are key for a successful integration of Anheuser-Busch’s business, which underpins the rapid de-leveraging of the group.”
