Smurfit Kappa Group cuts executive pay despite profit rise

Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) cut its executive pay levels by nearly 3% last year, with chief executive Gary McGann seeing a near 7% reduction.

This was despite the Dublin-headquartered international paper and packaging giant seeing pre-tax profits jump by almost 30% to €378m, basic earnings per share rise by almost 30% to 105.8c, and group revenues rise by nearly 2% to just shy of €8.1bn.

At the publication of its annual results last month, SKG also announced that it intends to return surplus cash to shareholders this year if it fails to land any target acquisitions.

The group’s latest annual report, published yesterday, shows combined remuneration for its three executive directors — Mr McGann; chief financial officer Ian Curley, and chief operations officer Tony Smurfit — fell from just over €5.25m to just under €5.1m. Combined basic salaries were largely unchanged, at just over €2.9m; but the main driver of reduction was a fall in pension benefits from €1.06m in 2013 to €882,000 last year.

Mr McGann’s overall package fell from €2.43m to €2.27m. Mr Curley’s was down marginally at €1.29m and Mr Smurfit’s rose from €1.52m to €1.53m.

Meanwhile, SKG’s total payments to its non-executive board members went from €1.23m to €1.28m last year. The company last month said it is hoping to make more accretive acquisitions in its core geographical markets this year and hopes to grow both via purchases and organically.

SKG last year made more than €160m worth of acquisitions in the US, Dominican Republic, and Colombia.