BG Group chief executive Helge Lund may just have earned millions for two months’ work

By:

Add as a preferred source on Google

After a brief two months at the helm of BG Group, its chief executive Helge Lund may be about to join – as the FT put it – "the ranks of history's footnote guys" – but it looks like he'll have last laugh.

Back in December, two months before Lund was due to leave Norwegian giant Statoil to take the reins at BG, a £12m "golden hello" due to be awarded to him was rejected by shareholders – most notably Legal & General, its fourth-largest investor.

After much back-and-forth in the press, the company scrapped the one-off award. In its annual report, published last week, it admitted offering Lund £25m was a mistake. Although you can see why BG felt it was necessary: oil prices and political struggles in territories such as Egypt helped to push its shares down by a third last year. Lund, meanwhile, is known as one of the best operators in the business – he's even been tipped as Norway's next prime minister. 

Nevertheless, fast forward four months, and Lund looks likely to step down shortly after the deal is complete. After all, having only been in the post for two months, he won't be able to offer much in the way of advice to Shell boss Ben van Beurden (himself new-ish, having taken the helm at Shell in January 2014) about the inner workings of BG.

Nevertheless, his pay packet suggests he's in line for at least several millions of the £26m total.

Here's what BG's annual report states. 

Lund land : How the BG chief exec's salary breaks down
  • Base salary – £1.5m, fixed for the first five years of employment
  • Pension – A cash payment in lieu of pension and equivalent to 30 per cent of salary, also fixed for the first five years of employment
  • Bonus (annual incentive scheme) – Target 100 per cent of base salary. Maximum 200 per cent of base salary
  • Long-term incentive plan – An initial grant with an EPV on award of approximately £4.6m, and a face value of approximately £10.6m.

    An annual grant with a face value on award of up to £9m (six times salary) and, for 2015, an EPV of up to £4m.

    A one-off buyout of forfeited variable Statoil pay in BG Group shares valued at at approximately £750,000.

  • Other – A one-off relocation allowance up to a maximum net value of £480,000

It's unlikely Lund will get the sum of that – but it's nevertheless pretty well played.