RE: RE: RE: Telus sees wireless boosting 2011 resuTechie at least Telus shareholders and dividend junkies like me won't have to deal with the extremely rich pension and compensation payments which the Shaw family will continue to take as long as they control Shaw.
12 million a year from now on as long as they live for the pensions of Shaw senior and the recently departed CEO Jim Shaw will be a permanent weight on the Shaw balance sheet and ability to pay out better dividends to regular shareholders.
12 million bucks a year is a lot of wireless revenue/profits off the top don't you think?
Oh, and Techie, did you see that Telus share price went up today?
Ex-CEO Jim Shaw gets $5.9-million pension
JANETMcFARLAND
Theboard of Shaw Communications Inc. votedto boost the pension payable toJim Shaw when he retired as CEO of the companylast month, bringing hispension payments to almost $500,000 monthly.
Thecompany said Mr.Shaw's pension benefit will now be $495,833 per month, or$5.95-millionannually - exceeding the $5.4-million pension paid annually tohisfather, JR Shaw, the company chairman.
Jim Shaw, 53, received the firstpayment on Dec. 1, the company said in documents it sent toshareholders.
Mr.Shaw retired last month, two months earlier than hisannouncedretirement date of Jan. 13, shortly after he was criticizedfordisplaying unusual behaviour at an investor luncheon. Some people whowere atthe Vancouver event said he appeared to be inebriated.
Thechange in hispension is disclosed in a footnote in Shaw's latestshareholder proxy circular.According to the circular, he was eligible toreceive an annual pension of$5.27-million as of the company's fiscalyear end on Aug. 31. The disclosuresaid he would have been eligible for a$5.8-million pension if he retired at age65.
Instead, the boardopted to pay him $5.95-million a year when heretired at age 53, morethan the amount he would have been eligible to receiveat the normalretirement age.
No explanation for the change is providedin the proxy circular and JR Shaw and Jim Shaw could not be reached for commentMonday.
Thecompany said the cost of financing Jim Shaw's pension climbedby$17-million in the year ended Aug. 31, to a total of $71-million. Thatamountdoes not appear to include any cost from the changes approved bythe board inNovember.
The executive pension plan is notpre-financed; the money isnot set aside in advance and the costs areinstead paid from annual cash flow asa compensation expense. However,the company reflects a portion of the cost ofthe plan as a liability inits financial statements.
Bradley Shaw, Jim'sbrother and Shaw'snew chief executive officer, is eligible for a pension of$3.97-millionat age 65, the proxy circular shows. His accrued pensionobligation is$37.6-million.
The circular shows Jim Shaw was paid a totalof$8.2-million in fiscal 2010, including a bonus of $6-million. No detailswereprovided about any payments related to his departure in November,which wasafter the Aug. 31 year end.
Bradley Shaw was paid$17.3-million in 2010,with $10.4-million of the total attributed to theincrease in value of hispension plan. The company said he was granted"additional credited service" inthe plan last year, but no details wereprovided.
"When CEOs move on, itis often the case that they get ahandshake that mere mortals, like me, mightfind to be a lottery win,"said Iain Grant, of the SeaBoard Group telecomconsulting firm inMontreal.
"But he did have a huge amount to do withgetting Shawto where it is today. If shareholders are upset, I'm sure we'llhearabout it. But I'm sure shareholders, looking back, will find thatJimprobably deserves that."
Another industry observer, speakingon conditionof anonymity, said the pay packages were in keeping withShaw's past practices."They've consistently done this, and it's notoverly surprising. But for thefirst time in their history they have realcompetition."