Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk has come under fire after revealing the pay levels of its top brass for the first time.
Pension funds have been querying the DKK 7m ($1.01m) paid to chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe.
The gap to the next best paid Danish director on the list, Novo Norisk chairman Helge Lund, is nearly DKK 4m.
The company opened up a can of worms when it published executive and board remuneration this month.
Some investors welcomed the transparency, but others have questioned the amounts involved.
"Unusual amount"
"It is an unusual amount, and of course it will be part of our dialogue with the company," pension fund ATP Group shareholder Claus Wiinblad told the Borsen newspaper.
The MP Pension fund also said the pay was very high compared to other Danish companies.
But its investment director, Anders Schelde, was cited as saying there may be a good explanation that justifies it.
"However, we think we are missing a good explanation and we cannot immediately find it in the remuneration report, so we look forward to hopefully getting it at the general meeting," he said.
This meeting will be held on March 23 in Copenhagen. The chairman will not comment until then, Maersk told TradeWinds.
Soren Skou ranks number four
The figures revealed chief executive Soren Skou received DKK 38m last year, the fourth highest pay in the country.
But they also showed that former executives are still being paid — sometimes for up to two years after resigning.
Ex-Energy chief executive Claus Hemmingsen got DKK 17.6m in 2019, while former chief operating officer Soren Toft banked DKK 13.8m, having lost out on options worth DKK 3.75m when he joined rival Mediterranean Shipping Co.
Ex-chief financial officer Jakob Stausholm was paid DKK 10.9m.
Hemmingsen stepped down in June 2019, but he is still being paid until 30 June 2021.
Stausholm quit in March 2018 and is still being paid up to the end of March this year "after a proportional offset from his new job pay".
“In line with our strategy, our ambition is to transform the business so that it is less affected by external factors," Maersk said in the report.
"In this regard, the board intends to review the overall remuneration structure with a focus on strengthening the relationship between salary and earnings."
Vice chair gets rather less
Vice chairman Ane Maersk Mc-Kinney Uggla received DKK 1.9m.
Other directors receive DKK 950,000 per year.
The total pay of the executive board amounted to DKK 137.6m.
Maersk said it had passed several milestones in its transformation plan in 2019.
"Our business performance met the expectations, the financial performance was improved, and the overall outcome was assessed at 119% of target," the Copenhagen-listed company added.
"Our key financials, including Ebitda, cash return on invested capital and gross profit of Logistics & Services, were in line with expectations, even though the macroeconomic conditions continued to weaken throughout the year."
