COCKTALES | Ayala zooms past SMC in executive pay ratings; Lopez firm comes 3rd

Holding firm Ayala Corp. has overtaken erstwhile leader San Miguel Corp. in the executive compensation race for 2012.

Ayala chief executive Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, his younger brother and president Fernando Zobel, and fellow management committee members John Eric Francia, Delfin Gonzalez Jr., Solomon Hermosura and John Philip Orbeta took home P398 million in combined compensation last year on the back of the P10.6 billion net income for the conglomerate.

That works out to an average of P66.3 million each Ayala executive, about 221 times the annual salary of, say, a call center worker who earns P20,000 a month with three months bonus.

The San Miguel senior management led by chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and president Ramon S. Ang, on the other hand, went home packing P309 million, itself a downgrade from the P364 million the SMC team received in 2011.

San Miguel ended last year with P36.77 billion net income, incidentally more than three times what Ayala made.

The Lopez-controlled power producer, First Philippine Holdings, came third in the compensation rankings, with chairman emeritus Oscar Lopez, his son and chief executive Federico, president Elpidio Ibanez, managing director Arthur De Guia and comptroller Perla Catahan last year clocking in P225 million in combined compensation.

Other companies in the top ten executive compensation rankings, as gleaned from the regulatory filings:
•Union Bank chairman and chief executive Justo Ortiz, president Victor Valdepenas, Edwin Bautista, Eugene Acevedo and Jesus Roberto Reyes, P214.2 million;
•Bank of the Philippine Islands president Aurelio Montinola III, chief operating officer Gil Buenaventura, treasurer Antonio Paner, EVP Alfonso Salcedo Jr. and SVP Cesareo de Leon III, P211.28 million;
•First Generation, another Lopez power firm, with chairman and chief executive Federico Lopez, president Francis Giles Puno, executive vice president Richard Tantoco, fellow EVP Jonathan Russell and senior VP Victor Santos Jr., P204 million;
•Ayala Land president Antonino Aquino, EVP Vincent Tan, SVP Arturo Corpuz, SVP Raul Irlanda and SVP Emilio Lolito Tumbocon, P191.2 million;
•ABS-CBN chief executive Eugenio Lopez III, his successor Ma. Rosario Santos-Concio, Carlo Joaquin Tadeo Katigbak, Ma. Lourdes Santos and Ma. Socorro Vidanes, P146 million;
•Globe Telecom president Ernest Cu, chief financial officer Alberto de Larrazabal, Rebecca Eclipse, Gil Genio and Renato Jiao, P142 million; and
•Manila Electric president Oscar Reyes, Ricardo Buencamino, Alfredo Panlilio, Betty Siy-Yap and Ramon Segismundo, P140 million.

Meralco affiliate PLDT is a close 11th, with president Napoleon Nazareno, Ernesto Alberto, Anabelle Chua and Menardo Jimenez Jr. sharing a combined P138 million compensation pie, P4 million smaller than what their counterparts in Globe Telecom receive, despite PLDT churning out P37.33 billion in core net income in 2012 as against Globe’s P10.27 billion.

And in case you are wondering how much Metro Pacific team led by Manuel V. Pangilinan made, it’s P124 million between MVP, president Jose Ma. Lim, chief finance officer David Nicol and executive advisor Augusto Palisoc.

In addition, MVP picked up another P74.78 million for him and four other senior executives over at Philex Mining, setting the pace against Atlas (P26.2 million for president Alfredo Ramos and four others), Nickel Asia (P38.89 million for president Gerard Brimo and his team) and Benguet (P43.1 million for president Benjamin Philip Romualdez and four others).

Media-favorite Enrique Razon Jr. is so far the lone chief executive whose compensation is pegged in the American currency, due to the multinational spread of his International Container Terminal Services Inc. For 2012, the ICTSI executive team led by Razon reported receiving $3 million in total compensation.

In addition, Razon and four other senior executives of the Bloomberry gaming concern took home another P31.2 million for 2012, even though the Solaire casino-hotel was still in its pre-operating stage.

Taipans pay less

The taipans, in this globalized age, still pay themselves and their children working for them well below the market leaders.

JG Summit, for instance, compensated its owner-chairman John Gokongwei Jr., brother and chief executive officer James Go, Mr. John’s son and president Lance Gokongwei, Patrick Henry Go and former Bangko Sentral Governor Gabriel Singson P60.6 million last year, one-sixth of the Ayala package, despite JG Summit cranking out, at P13.5 billion, nearly P3 billion more in profits than Ayala’s.

Ditto with SM Investments of taipan Henry Sy Sr.

SM Investments last year made P24.7 billion, twice more than what Ayala made. Even then, taipan son and president Harley Sy and four of his top executives went home with P49 million in combined pay envelopes, lower than the P66.3-million average pay check of a single senior Ayala executive.

The country’s second biggest bank, Metrobank, with taipan George S.K. Ty as group chairman looking over the shoulders of his son-chairman Arthur Ty, president Fabian Dee, EVPs Vicente Cuna Jr. and Fernand Antonio Tansingco, rewarded its top executive team P108.74 million in combined compensation, half of the Union Bank package, even though Metrobank cleared P17 billion in profit last year, more than twice Union Bank’s P7.6 billion.

Despite his riches, taipan Lucio Tan deserves special mention for being parsimonious with himself and his son Michael.

The combined 2012 pay checks of Kapitan, LT Group president Michael Tan, deputy chief finance officer Nestor Mendones and corporate secretary Ma. Cecilia Pesayco amounted to, this is not a misprint, P9.05 million.

Heard through the grapevine

BCDA president Arnel Paciano Casanova had been prevailed upon at the last-minute last week to cancel what could have been a hard-hitting press conference on the SM Aura issue, but not after the BCDA staff had already distributed advance copies of his presentation to select media outlets.

The inch-thick folder of documents included revelations of a P170-million cash donation by SM Prime Holdings to the City of Taguig during the time of Mayor Sigfrido Tinga.–Victor C. Agustin, InterAksyon