Four key executives at tanker owner Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) saw their pay rise by an average of 14% thanks to higher stock awards while other forms of compensation remained unchanged.
A proxy statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of an upcoming shareholder vote on compensation shows that chief executive and president Samuel Norton earned just over $2.31m in total pay last year, up from $2.04m in 2020.
As with other OSG executives whose pay is subject to disclosure, his salary, non-equity incentives and other forms of pay remained unchanged.
But Norton’s stock awards rose to $1.34m in 2021, up from $1.06m a year earlier.
The chief executive earns a base salary of $425,000 per year.
Meanwhile, chief financial officer and vice president Richard Truebloom earned $1.05m in total compensation, up from just under $919,000 in 2020.
Chief operating officer and vice president Patrick O’Halloran, and chief administrative officer and vice president Damon Mote each saw their total pay rise to $934,000 from $814,000.
OSG uses company performance metrics to pay its executives, but last year the Tampa, Florida-based tanker owner fell into the red.
Slumping demand that followed the outbreak of Covid-19 led the company to put seven vessels into lay-up, pulling revenue downward by 14.2% for the year.
The outfit logged a $29.1m operating loss in 2021, reversing $58.6m in operating profit in 2020, when the company logged a gain associated with closing its takeover of Alaska Tanker Co.
But OSG provided its executives with a special 2021 grant to take the curveball from the Covid-19 pandemic into account.
“The performance measures for our compensation program for 2021 were set by our compensation committee in the midst of significant uncertainty and inability to predict the length and extent of the impacts of the pandemic on our business,” OSG said in its proxy statement.
“Our NEOs [named executive officers] acted nimbly and effectively to protect the safety and health of our crew members and shoreside employees and to continue to provide critical, high-quality services to our customers. The NEOs were also successful in focusing on the execution of our long-term business strategies.”
The executive compensation vote is not likely to be controversial. This time last year, 99.3% of OSG shareholders who participated in the vote approved 2020 compensation.
Board member compensation at OSG was unchanged in 2021.
