Shareholders of carmaker Stellantis approved on Tuesday with a 70.2% vote the remuneration of group CEO Carlos Tavares, which could reach 36.5 million euros by 2023 – a purely advisory vote.
This compensation includes a €10 million bonus related to the transformation of the group created in 2021 by the merger of PSA and Fiat-Chrysler, as well as bonuses awarded only if certain targets are achieved by 2025, the last year of his current mandate. Carlos Tavares will initially receive €23.5 million for 2023.
Controversial reward
The boss’ remuneration, up 56% from 2022, has sparked controversy in France, where big bosses’ pay generally remains far from those peaks.
Carlos Tavares drew the ire of French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022, who deemed the “astronomical” amount of his compensation “shocking and excessive”. The latter was confirmed by 80% of shareholders.
Stellantis, for his part, believes that this remuneration should rather be compared with the remuneration of multinational companies such as Boeing in the US (Dave Calhoun, $33 million for 2023). The group makes most of its sales in Europe, but makes most of its profits in the American market.
“90% of my salary comes from the company’s results”
Going to the Tremery plant (Moselle) on Monday, Carlos Tavares took on this remuneration, which he said has a “contractual dimension between me and the company as a footballer and a Formula 1 driver.”
“90% of my salary comes from the company’s results (…), so this proves that the company’s results are obviously not that bad,” he added in an interview with France Bleu Lorraine North. “If you think this is unacceptable, pass the law and change it and I will respect it.”
The president of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, Boris Vallo, took him at his word, announcing that he was reintroducing the 2020 bill aimed at limiting the pay gap within companies.
“Absolutely shocking and scandalous”
Several investor advisory firms have recommended voting against the award this year, including US agency Glass Lewis, which expressed “serious reservations”. The same position in the Proxinvest agency. Among CAC 40 executives, the “median is five million” euros in remuneration, and in the US it reaches 15 million, its CEO Charles Pinel noted on BFM Business on Monday.
CGT Stellantis criticized the “absolutely shocking and scandalous” salary equivalent of €100,000 a day, “an increase of almost 50% when most of us were only getting 3.7% and are struggling to finish the month.”
On February 15, the automotive giant announced that it would redistribute almost 1.9 billion euros to its employees around the world. Shareholders will receive approximately €7.7 billion for the 2023 financial year.
Record profits in 2023
Stellantis’ largest shareholder is the Agnelli family’s holding company Exor (14.2%), followed by the Peugeot family company (7%) and the French state through Bpifrance (6%). The chief executive of the state-owned investment bank, Nicolas Dufourcq, said at the end of March that he would “abstain on consideration of remuneration issues” while “we have reached essentially an American level for a group that is quintessentially American but may indeed not be well understood in Europe.” .
Stellantis, with its 14 brands including Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Dodge and Opel, posted new record profits of 18.6 billion euros for 2023, up 11% on last year. Its turnover approaches 190 billion euros.
The car giant has delivered record results since the merger, thanks to the Portuguese boss’ tight cost controls and high prices to achieve comfortable profits.
Source: Le Parisien
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