Chinesepod - Senior executive earns over 17m yuan in 2006

BIZCHINA / Biz Life

Senior executive earns over 17m yuan in 2006

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-05-04 10:42

Top executives' annual salary in China's listed companies saw a sharp
increase last year due to the booming stock market, according to
statistics by China Securities News.

A total of 1,254 listed companies, which announced their last year's
performance report, paid out 2.2 billion yuan (US$280.34 million) to
their top brass last year.

The average annual salary in 2006 was a record high of 162,800 yuan, up
18 percent year on year from 138,000 yuan in 2005.

Liang Jiaju, executive vice general manager of Ping An Insurance Company,
listed in both Shanghai and Hong Kong, was paid the highest at 17.1
million yuan last year, topping all of China's listed companies in terms
of annual wage.

Ping An also gave the most generous salaries to other senior executives.
Last year it doled out 75 million yuan. The Bank of China came second
with its senior executives' annual wage reaching 32.1 million yuan.
Shenzhen Development Bank was third, with 29.3 million yuan.

The annual performance reports showed that the net profit of the
aforementioned three companies reached just shy of 6 billion yuan, 42
billion yuan and 1.3 billion yuan respectively in 2006, a sharp increase
of 80, 52 and 319 percent respectively year on year.

Senior executives at China Vanke Co Ltd, a real estate developer, earned
a total of 16.1 million yuan last year. Its annual report showed its net
profit soared to almost 60 percent to 2.2 billion yuan in 2006.

But those listed companies with poor performance only gave a modest pay
to their executives, some earning as low as 50,000 yuan per year, far
lower than the average.

The finance and insurance sectors gave out the highest salaries. The
chairman of Shenzhen Development Bank was at the top of the pay list of
executives of Chinese banks listed on the mainland stock market.

Frank Newman, a former United States deputy secretary of treasury earned
almost 10 million yuan last year from the Shenzhen bank in southern
China's Guangdong Province, according to the bank's annual report.

Three executives from China Merchants Bank and two from China Minsheng
Bank are among the top 20 annual pay list of China's listed companies.

Shenzhen Development Bank's independent directors earned an average of
760,000 yuan.

By sectors, the finance and insurance, and electronic industries held the
top two spots with the average annual pay of their senior executives
reaching 757,600 yuan and 271,600 yuan respectively. The last two were
textile and furniture sectors, with senior executives' average annual
salaries of 115,600 yuan and 88,100 yuan respectively.

Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai are the top three regions with
the average annual wage of high executives in listed companies reaching
30,100 yuan, 27,200 yuan and 19,300 yuan respectively.

Among the 170 senior executives who earned more than one million yuan
last year, only seven were from the small and medium-sized enterprises,
most of which are private enterprises.

None of the top 100-listed companies who paid their senior executives top
dollar have less than one billion yuan in total assets.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

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