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Smurfit Kappa executives get €10m in share awards under bonus schemes

Chief executive Tony Smurfit granted just under 98,000 share awards worth €4.1 million

Smurfit Kappa chief executive Tony Smurfit has received share awards that would be worth €4.1m at its current share price level. Photograph: Alan Betson

Barry J Whyte
Fri Mar 15 2024 - 18:03

Top executives at Smurfit Kappa have been granted €10.4 million worth of conditional share awards under the company’s bonus plan, new stock exchange filings show.

Tony Smurfit, the company’s chief executive, was granted a total of 97,980 share awards under two separate schemes, the documents show. The shares would be worth just under €4.1 million on the open market at Smurfit Kappa’s current share price of about €41.80.

The awards were made under two separate incentive schemes run by the company, known as the performance share plan and the deferred bonus plan.

Ken Bowles, the company’s chief financial officer, was granted a total of 51,692. At the current share price, those would be worth €2.1 million.

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Saverio Mayer, the chief executive for Europe, got 44,896 condition share awards, which would be worth €1.8 million at current prices.

Laurent Sellier, the company’s chief executive for the Americas, got 37,284 shares in total, while Gillian Carson-Callan, the company’s secretary, got 17,988, of which 4,535 were awarded through the deferred scheme. Those tranches of shares would be worth €1.5 million and just over €750,000 respectively.

Smurfit Kappa is in the midst of finalising a more than $21 billion merger deal with US rival WestRock, which would create the world’s biggest packaging group with expected annual revenues about $34 billion.

The company’s share price has surged in recent months on foot of the merger announcement, from a price just under €30 to €41.80 currently.

[ Smurfit Kappa signals WestRock deal will close in July as revenue falls in face of global slowdown ]

Last month the company announced its revenues for the year had fallen by 12 per cent to €11.3 billion and that its operating profit had declined by 16 per cent to €1.4 billion.

Nonetheless, Smurfit described the figures as the “the second best” set of results in its history, “on most metrics”. He said the demand during 2023 was “difficult primarily due to destocking and a lack of economic activity in certain sectors”, but that there was a “progressive improvement in demand during the year, with a return to growth in the fourth quarter”.

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