The exodus of some of the former Iseq heavyweights in Dublin to Wall Street was always going to lead to more United States-style pay packages for their top executives.
Take CRH, which dropped its Irish listing in late 2023. Its new chief executive, Jim Mintern, could receive total remuneration of up to $14.8 million (€13.6 million) this year if the company hits various performance and share price targets under a new board plan to “adjust pay levels to align with US peers”, according to a company disclosure late last week.
It would represent an almost 9 per cent boost on the $13.6 million enjoyed by his long-standing predecessor, Albert Manifold, traditionally the best-paid Iseq boss, who handed over the reins at the start of this year.
On Wednesday, Smurfit Westrock, the product of the merger last year between Dublin-based Smurfit Kappa and US peer WestRock, disclosed that its CEO Tony Smurfit’s package was officially recorded as $21.3 million last year – though a chunk of this was down to certain modifications of existing Smurfit Kappa stock awards that needed to take effect at the time of the merger.
The figure was up from the $6.35 million compensation Smurfit enjoyed in 2023, before the merger and adoption of the New York Stock Exchange as the group’s main listing.
As irresistible as the US, home to the most liquid stock markets on the planet, has been to some of Ireland top companies, however, executives are finding themselves having to contend with even more revealing pay disclosure rules brought in by the Securities and Exchange Commission in late 2022.
They require listed companies to outline a new pay calculation, known as compensation actually paid (CAP), which includes the effect of recent changes in the value of current and potential stock holdings.
At Smurfit Westrock, this resulted in a CAP figure of almost $27.9 million for its CEO in 2024.
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Over at CRH, the figure was even more eye-watering, with Manifold’s CAP amounting to $39.6 million – driven by the company’s strong stock perform during the year.
But even that pales in comparison to his corresponding CAP for 2023 – at $46.3 million.
