Fletcher directors enjoy pay rises as earnings fall

By Jenny Ruth

Aug. 21 (BusinessDesk) - Fletcher Building’s managing director and other directors have all enjoyed pay increases despite the company’s earnings from core operations mostly falling and a precipitous drop in the share price.

Ross Taylor’s base pay went up $50,000 to $2.05 million and he was provided with $106,503 of other benefits including KiwiSaver and medical insurance premium payments.

Taylor was also granted $1.1 million as a short-term variable incentive which is payable in September and a long-term variable incentive of 196,495 shares, worth $2.05 million based on the weighted average share price on the five business days before July 1 last year of $6.99.

The shares are currently trading at $4.75, up 18 cents, or 3.9 percent, from yesterday but down about 35 percent from a year ago.

Taylor was also awarded a one-off share-based payment of $1 million, subject to him remaining with the company until June 30, 2022.

“The board recognises the transition the company is going through and the important part the chief executive officer plays in the successful delivery of the strategy he set in 2018,” Fletcher’s annual report says.

Fletcher’s chair, Bruce Hassall, who took over from Sept. 1 last year, will receive $367,200 base remuneration in the year that began July 1 this year, up from $360,000 between Oct. 25, 2018 and June 30 this year.

Non-executive directors will also receive $142,800 this year, up from $140,000 between Oct. 25, 2018 and June 30 this year and up from $132,800 between Oct. 25, 2017 and Oct. 24, 2018.

These amounts don’t include additional payments for chairing and sitting on board subcommittees which remain unchanged from last year.

Fletcher posted a $164 million annual net profit, a turnaround from the previous year’s loss and the first year of a five-year refocusing strategy to grow the business, the company said.

Fletcher’s net profit for the year ended June compares with a net loss of $190 million the previous year.

Earnings before interest and tax came in at $631 million, within guidance of $620-650 million, compared with $50 million the previous year.

However, ebit from the building products division fell to $127 million from $132 million the previous year, ebit from the distribution division was unchanged at $104 million, steel division ebit fell to $33 million from $49 million and concrete ebit fell to $84 million from $90 million.

The residential and development division was the lone bright spot, lifting ebit by $1 million to $137 million, while the construction division returned to profit with ebit of $47 million.

The last “normal” year for the construction division, before it began reporting massive losses totaling nearly $1 billion from its Building+Interiors high-rise unit, was in the year ended June, 2016 when ebit was $78 million.

Fletcher’s Australian business produced ebit of $57 million, down from $114 million the previous year.

(BusinessDesk)

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