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.