Eagle Bulk Shipping likes having Gary Vogel as chief executive and has given him 3.5m reasons to keep at it.
Fully half of Vogel’s overall $7m compensation package for 2022 is premised on him still being in the CEO’s chair come May 2026 under a “one-time retention grant” awarded by the Connecticut company’s board of director.
The breakdown sees Vogel earning about $3.5m in overall compensation for 2022, and then up to an additional $3.5m if he is still in the job three years from now. About half of the latter figure depends on Eagle hitting certain performance benchmarks.
Even without the special grant figured in, Vogel had a lucrative year in 2022, although the $3.5m figure was down slightly from the $3.9m package awarded for 2021.
His base pay rose to $695,000 from just over $678,000, and a cash bonus jumped to $1.19m from $1.09m, so the downside came in stock awarded for the 2022 pay period.
The only other executive whose compensation was reported was former chief financial officer Frank De Costanzo, who saw overall compensation for 2022 fall to $1.46m from $1.81m in 2021.
His salary stayed at $425,000, and a cash bonus of $307,000 was up slightly from $300,000 the previous year. But his stock awards were down to a value of $691,000 from $1.05m the prior year.
De Costanzo announced his retirement in December after six years at the finance helm. He was replaced by Costa Tsoutsoplides, who had been chief strategy officer.
The type of award granted to Vogel often comes when a CEO enters into a new employment contract. But that was not the case here, as Vogel renewed his deal with Eagle in November 2021.
In a proxy filing with US securities regulators, Eagle’s compensation committee said the grant was “in recognition of the company’s strong performance under Mr Vogel’s leadership, and in order to further incentivise the retention of Mr Vogel and to further align Mr Vogel’s long-term interests with those of our shareholders”.
Data provided by the committee show Eagle logged a shareholder total return — stock appreciation plus dividend income — of 26.3% in 2022 compared with 8.8% by a peer group it uses for benchmarking purposes.
The peers include fellow bulker owners Diana Shipping, Genco Shipping & Trading, Golden Ocean Group, Pacific Basin Shipping, Pangaea Logistics Solutions, Safe Bulkers and Star Bulk Carriers.
