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Johannesburg - Top executive directors at South Africa’s biggest telecommunications company Vodacom have received lower bonus pay than in previous years.
This is according to Vodacom’s integrated report for the year ended March 31 2015 which details the company’s latest remuneration figures.
The chief executive officer of Vodacom, Shameel Joosub, earned total remuneration pay of R10.9m for the year ending March 31 2015, said the report.
This figure is just over R2m less than his total remuneration of R12.98m for the year ended March 31 2014 and excludes long term incentives.
The figures in the report further revealed that Joosub’s guaranteed package for Vodacom’s 2015 financial year increased from R6.8m to R7.2m but that his short-term incentive, or bonus pay, was cut from R6m to R3.7m.
Meanwhile, the only other executive director listed in Vodacom’s report, chief financial officer (CFO) Ivan Dittrich, earned total remuneration of R6.2m for the year ended March 31 2015. This is lower than his total package of R7.5m for the period ended March 31 2014 and also excludes long term incentives.
Like Joosub, Dittrich’s guaranteed package increased from R4.5m to R4.7m but his bonus pay was cut from R3m to R1.5m.
“This past financial year has been challenging with regulatory changes that have impacted the business, including the change of MTRs (mobile termination rates),” wrote Thoko Martha Mokgosi-Mwantembe, the chairman of Vodacom’s remuneration committee.
Vodacom's annual results released earlier this year reflected that it suffered a R2bn hit in service revenues in South Africa because of major cuts in local mobile termination rates (MTRs). MTRs are the rates telecommunication operators charge each other for terminating calls on their networks.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) adjusted these rates to ensure that smaller operators such as Cell C and Telkom Mobile earn more from MTR than bigger players Vodacom and MTN.
The cut in the Vodacom top executive directors’ bonus pay also came amid the company having reported for the period ending March 2015 that its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) for South Africa fell 1.1% to R22.837bn.
Other prescribed officers in Vodacom such as chief technology officer Andries Delport had his bonus pay cut from R2.5m to R1.9m. This resulted in his total remuneration falling from R6.3m to R6m.
Long term incentives
In terms of Vodacom’s long term incentives and benefits, CEO Joosub was also awarded fewer forfeitable shares. For the period ended March 2014 Joosub was given R12.8m worth of shares. But at the end of March 2015, the value of shares that he was given amounted to R9.8m.
Vodacom CFO Dittrich earned forfeitable shares worth R654 941 at the end of March 2015. This figure is lower than R770 854 that he earned in shares at the end of March 2014 from Vodacom.
Vodacom's remuneration regarding shares is linked to company performance.
See the full list of Vodacom’s remuneration table below.
Vodacom's remuneration table for the year ended March 2015 which excludes long term incentives. (Gareth van Zyl)
Vodacom's remuneration table for the year ended March 2014 which excludes long term incentives. (Gareth van Zyl)
