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Highest paid CEOs in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·28 Sep 2014

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who will be stepping aside from the position at the end of this year, took a salary cut to $67.3 million (R755 million) – significantly less than $78 million (R875 million) he was paid in 2013.

However, Ellison remains one of the highest paid CEOs in the USA, if not the world.

According to Salary.com’s CEO data, Charif Souki of Cheniere Energy is the top-paid CEO in the USA, with a total haul of $141.9 million (R1.6 billion) in the company’s latest financial year (2013).

Souki’s package included a $133 million stock award, a $3.68 million cash bonus and a salary of $800,000. Notably however, Cheniere Energy has never posted an annual profit, according to Bloomberg.

Ellison’s $78.4 million pay put him as the third-highest paid CEO in the US in 2013 – though his current pay would sink him two spots to 5th.

This is below the likes of Mario Gabelli of Gamco, who was paid $85 million (R955 million) in the latest financial year (2013), and Tow Ward of Sandridge Energy, who pocketed $71 million (R800 million).

10 highest paid CEOs in the USA

According to research by Mergence Investment Managers, the USA has the biggest pay gap in the world, followed by Hong Kong (2nd), Germany (3rd) and the UK (4th).

South Africa sits with the 5th biggest pay gap in the world, where CEOs get paid on average 140 time more as the average salary their employees – with the gap reaching as high as 725 times.

Compared to their American counterparts, however, South Africa’s top-paid CEOs’ earnings are far more modest.

It must be noted that many of the companies listed below are not solely operating in South Africa, some are dual-listed multinationals, which would impact what the CEOs take home.

SAB Miller chief executive Alan Clark took home GBP6.7 million in the 2014 financial year, which translates to R122 million in the local currency.

Similarly, British American Tobacco, which operates globally, saw its CEO, Nicandro Durante take home R118 million in the last financial year (2013).

Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani raked in R59.5 million for his role as top executive at the company, as well as a further R25.5 million for his role at AngloGold Ashanti.

10 highest paid CEOs in South Africa (JSE)

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