Salaries and bonuses of SLI Group CEOs increased in 2023
Published: Tuesday, Mar 12th 2024, 12:30
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The salaries and bonuses of the CEOs of the thirty largest listed Swiss companies rose again last year. Novartis even set a new record with its remuneration for CEO Vas Narasimhan since the adoption of the rip-off initiative.
In 2023, Narasimhan received total compensation of CHF 16.25 million - more than any other manager of a listed company since 2013, when the Swiss electorate approved the rip-off initiative.
Compared to 2022, Narasimhan's total remuneration almost doubled last year, according to the annual report. The reason for the increase is that under his leadership, Novartis achieved or exceeded all of the targets set in the bonus programs.
More bonuses across the board
However, Novartis is not the only company to see an increase. Remuneration was higher in 2023 than in the previous year at most of the companies listed in the Swiss Leader Index (SLI). This is shown by an initial analysis of the annual reports by the news agency AWP. However, a number of annual reports are still outstanding, including those of the major bank UBS and the insurance group Zurich.
Of the 16 companies in the SLI that have already published their 2023 annual report, the salary and bonus payments for the CEO are higher than in the previous year at twelve of them. On average, the total remuneration for the CEO has risen by around 7 percent.
The increase would have been even higher if there had been no change in the highest-paid position to date - the CEO of Roche. Roche's current CEO Thomas Schinecker, who has only been in office since March 2023, has a significantly lower total remuneration than Severin Schwan a year ago.
Rising share prices
One important factor that led to higher compensation in 2023 was the rise in share prices last year. The value of bonus components linked to shares also rose accordingly.
This in turn contributed to the fact that the average remuneration of the other members of the Executive Board also increased in 2023. According to the information available in the annual reports, the average increase was over eight percent.
In the 2022 financial year, on the other hand, which was weaker on the stock market, salary and bonus payments to Group CEOs and members of the Executive Board did not increase for the first time in a long time.
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