1. "SMRT cuts CEO Desmond Kuek's pay by nearly 20% - The Straits Times 04 June 2016
SINGAPORE - Transport operator SMRT Corp has cut the pay of its chief executive Desmond Kuek - a rare move in the corporate universe.
Mr Kuek, 53, received a total remuneration of $1.87 million for the financial year ended March 31 - down from $2.31 million the year before.
This was revealed in the company's newly-released annual report, which revealed more on Mr Kuek's compensation. It said that his basic salary was $830,955, while his variable performance pay was $1,040,759, making a total of $1,871,714.
It said Mr Kuek earned $2,311,023 the year before - $793,170 in basic salary and $1,517,853 in variable.
The company did not say why Mr Kuek's pay was crimped, but last year, it defended his record remuneration. It said it was benchmarked against the pay of CEOs of peer companies, and that it was competitive and at a responsible level.
It added that Mr Kuek's tasks were more daunting than before.
SMRT has been struggling to renew ageing operating assets to improve service reliability and at the same time looking for new ways to bolster earnings eroded by higher operating expenditure.
When he joined the rail operator in October 2012, he was paid $611,000 for the six months to SMRT's financial year-end in March 2013.
If annualised, it would translate to an annual package of $1.22 million. For the year ended March 2014, he made between $1.75 million and $2 million.
Commenting on the pay cut, human resource practitioner Alex Yew, managing partner of headhunter Team Savant, said: "Some may link it to the recent mishaps and service outages, but I think it is more in line with market sentiment and company performance.
"It's still a very decent salary."
SMRT has two other senior executives in the million-dollar club, but SMRT said it was not in the interest of the company to disclose details "given the wage discrepancies in the industry, and the competitive pressures that may result from such disclosure".
Over at ComfortDelGro Corp, a much larger transport group than SMRT, chief executive Kua Hong Pak's remuneration remained unchanged at between $1.75 million and $2 million. But Mr Kua has six million outstanding share options as at end-2015."
1st of all, it is SICKENING to learn of the million dollared total earning of this SMRT Group CEO!
2nd, the Board of Directors, especially the Remuneration Committee, are probably of a very different league from the commoners and the common business people where they think paying some people more than a million a year is a good idea!
3rd the news media TOTALLY failed to HELP Singapore government and corporations to appreciate the 'much vaunted advantages of splitting the pay packing into Fixed and Variable components'!
Mr Kuek's fixed salary for FY2016 ended 31 March 2016 was S$830,955 while in FY2015 was S$793,170. That is a $40k increment! That can employ how many low-waged workers that the government has been wanting to help? 3+?
Can Mr Kuek and his 2 other million dollared colleagues run the trains and buses, maintain the 'ageing infrastructures' and clean the stations,etc. IF the workers decide to stop for a day?
The CORRECT description for Mr Kuek's 'pay' cut of 20% should be: Mr Kuek DID NOT or FAILED to earn his variable pay because he did not hit his KPIs. Hopefully his KPIs are set meaningfully and the EXCUSE of he is running a company with ageing infrastructures!
Looked here, he is running SMRT with the government GIVING HIM MONEY to buy buses for goodness sake! How has this 'public' money to help a so-called 'private public listed and majority owned by government related companies' been accounted for?
When Ms Saw, Mr Kuek's predecessor who left with a furore and bad publicity only drawing the same as this '20% cut' total package, it shows that the 'elites that run the Board and the Company' literally DON'T take the pubic seriously. Which they can totally do so.
However, it would be interesting to see IF there will be some 'activist shareholders' that will START to hold SMRT Board and the CEO to task for paying such ridiculous total package.
For me, for the longest time, I had been saying that NO ONE is worth more than S$500k/year of FIXED salary. However, the VARIABLE components can be as high as the sky as long as the PROFIT, after catering for REPLACEMENT of 'ageing infrastructure' are accounted for, is use to fund it.
Of course, when that happy situation happened, one would wish that the 'excess profit' will be shared with ALL the employees instead of mainly going to the already filthily paid 'senior executives'!!
If I am paid more than a million a year, how can I possibly relate to an employee who is just paid the minimal 'progressive' wages cleaning the train, bus and station?
The CONTINUATION of this particular CEO's high total pay is really a sign that nobody wants to know the truth, nobody is really interested in keeping fixed cost down by tweaking variable cost, the elites are just doing what they do oblivious to the 'unreasoned and unhappy' complaints! Some of them probably are thinking: what do these mortals know about how and why we pay ourselves, the immortals, such high total pay!
SINGAPORE - Transport operator SMRT Corp has cut the pay of its chief executive Desmond Kuek - a rare move in the corporate universe.
Mr Kuek, 53, received a total remuneration of $1.87 million for the financial year ended March 31 - down from $2.31 million the year before.
This was revealed in the company's newly-released annual report, which revealed more on Mr Kuek's compensation. It said that his basic salary was $830,955, while his variable performance pay was $1,040,759, making a total of $1,871,714.
It said Mr Kuek earned $2,311,023 the year before - $793,170 in basic salary and $1,517,853 in variable.
The company did not say why Mr Kuek's pay was crimped, but last year, it defended his record remuneration. It said it was benchmarked against the pay of CEOs of peer companies, and that it was competitive and at a responsible level.
It added that Mr Kuek's tasks were more daunting than before.
SMRT has been struggling to renew ageing operating assets to improve service reliability and at the same time looking for new ways to bolster earnings eroded by higher operating expenditure.
When he joined the rail operator in October 2012, he was paid $611,000 for the six months to SMRT's financial year-end in March 2013.
If annualised, it would translate to an annual package of $1.22 million. For the year ended March 2014, he made between $1.75 million and $2 million.
Commenting on the pay cut, human resource practitioner Alex Yew, managing partner of headhunter Team Savant, said: "Some may link it to the recent mishaps and service outages, but I think it is more in line with market sentiment and company performance.
"It's still a very decent salary."
SMRT has two other senior executives in the million-dollar club, but SMRT said it was not in the interest of the company to disclose details "given the wage discrepancies in the industry, and the competitive pressures that may result from such disclosure".
Over at ComfortDelGro Corp, a much larger transport group than SMRT, chief executive Kua Hong Pak's remuneration remained unchanged at between $1.75 million and $2 million. But Mr Kua has six million outstanding share options as at end-2015."
1st of all, it is SICKENING to learn of the million dollared total earning of this SMRT Group CEO!
2nd, the Board of Directors, especially the Remuneration Committee, are probably of a very different league from the commoners and the common business people where they think paying some people more than a million a year is a good idea!
3rd the news media TOTALLY failed to HELP Singapore government and corporations to appreciate the 'much vaunted advantages of splitting the pay packing into Fixed and Variable components'!
Mr Kuek's fixed salary for FY2016 ended 31 March 2016 was S$830,955 while in FY2015 was S$793,170. That is a $40k increment! That can employ how many low-waged workers that the government has been wanting to help? 3+?
Can Mr Kuek and his 2 other million dollared colleagues run the trains and buses, maintain the 'ageing infrastructures' and clean the stations,etc. IF the workers decide to stop for a day?
The CORRECT description for Mr Kuek's 'pay' cut of 20% should be: Mr Kuek DID NOT or FAILED to earn his variable pay because he did not hit his KPIs. Hopefully his KPIs are set meaningfully and the EXCUSE of he is running a company with ageing infrastructures!
Looked here, he is running SMRT with the government GIVING HIM MONEY to buy buses for goodness sake! How has this 'public' money to help a so-called 'private public listed and majority owned by government related companies' been accounted for?
When Ms Saw, Mr Kuek's predecessor who left with a furore and bad publicity only drawing the same as this '20% cut' total package, it shows that the 'elites that run the Board and the Company' literally DON'T take the pubic seriously. Which they can totally do so.
However, it would be interesting to see IF there will be some 'activist shareholders' that will START to hold SMRT Board and the CEO to task for paying such ridiculous total package.
For me, for the longest time, I had been saying that NO ONE is worth more than S$500k/year of FIXED salary. However, the VARIABLE components can be as high as the sky as long as the PROFIT, after catering for REPLACEMENT of 'ageing infrastructure' are accounted for, is use to fund it.
Of course, when that happy situation happened, one would wish that the 'excess profit' will be shared with ALL the employees instead of mainly going to the already filthily paid 'senior executives'!!
If I am paid more than a million a year, how can I possibly relate to an employee who is just paid the minimal 'progressive' wages cleaning the train, bus and station?
The CONTINUATION of this particular CEO's high total pay is really a sign that nobody wants to know the truth, nobody is really interested in keeping fixed cost down by tweaking variable cost, the elites are just doing what they do oblivious to the 'unreasoned and unhappy' complaints! Some of them probably are thinking: what do these mortals know about how and why we pay ourselves, the immortals, such high total pay!
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