GSK’s chief executive could take home nearly £22m this year as the pharmaceutical company attempts to offer US-style pay packets to top executives.
Emma Walmsley’s pay package will reach a maximum of £21.56m if the company’s share price rises by 50%, according to its annual report. That includes fixed pay of £1.7m. A package of £16.4m looks more realistic, which would still represent a hefty pay rise.
Walmsley, who has run the FTSE 100 company since 2017, was paid £10.6m last year, down from £12.7m in 2023 as a result of lower bonuses. Her fixed pay was little changed at £1.6m.
Her pay bump, which was announced on the same day as hefty potential increases for the bosses of Aviva and Intercontinental Hotels Group, comes as UK pharmaceutical companies attempt to put executive pay packets on a par with those at US rivals.
Before the spin-off of the Sensodyne owner Haleon in 2022, GSK benchmarked bosses’ pay with other consumer goods companies including Heineken. Since that deal, it has compared itself with biopharmaceutical companies and Walmsley’s pay puts her in the lower quartile of that group, it argued.
Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker said: “The proposed changes to our executive remuneration policy further strengthen the link between management and shareholder interests, with higher rewards contingent on industry-leading research and development progress and shareholder returns.
“In particular, the proposed changes strongly incentivise pipeline progress and the delivery of high-value opportunities like we have in respiratory, immunology and inflammation and oncology.”
AstraZeneca, the UK’s biggest drugmaker, paid its chief executive, Pascal Soriot ,£14.7m last year, down from £17.4m in 2023, it said last week.
GSK performed well last year, but took a sizeable charge to settle lawsuits in the US. It lifted its long-term sales targets earlier this month as it hailed a strong drug pipeline. Revenues from HIV and cancer medications grew while vaccine sales fell. The firm also raised its dividend and announced a £2bn share buyback.
Its profits, however, dropped by 34% to £3.5bn after it paid out £1.8bn in October to settle thousands of cases in US courts over its heartburn drug Zantac, amid claims the drug causes cancer.
At Intercontinental Hotels Group, the chief executive, Elie Maalouf, was paid £7.5m last year, up from £4.2m in 2023 when he took the helm halfway through the year. His pay could almost triple to a maximum of £20.6m in 2025, assuming a big share price rise, according to the firm’s annual report.
after newsletter promotion
Amanda Blanc, who runs Britain’s biggest insurer, Aviva, landed a pay package of £7.2m last year, down from £7.3m in 2023, according to the firm’s annual report.
Blanc, who is overseeing the £3.7bn acquisition of Aviva’s rival Direct Line, could be paid a maximum of £10.4m this year, depending on the insurer’s share price performance. This assumes that the long-term incentive plan pays out at 100%, which has never happened, a spokesperson noted.
Aviva said: “We are very mindful of the need to ensure Amanda’s salary remains competitive, from a UK and European perspective, recognising both are competitors for our top talent.”
Aviva reported a 20% jump in operating profits to nearly £1.8bn last year on Thursday. Profits were boosted by a 14% rise in general insurance premiums, to £12.2bn. The shares rose by 3.4% and hit a 10-year high of 542.80p.
Source: theguardian.com
